The Loud Apartment
by LoudAutomata16
Summary: In an AU where none of the Louds are related, Lincoln is unhappy with leaving his friends and Royal Woods behind and moving into an apartment in the city. But then, his new neighbors start to get tangled into his life... [CANCELLED/COMPLETED]
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: Happy May 2** **nd** **everyone. It's the second anniversary of the airing of the Loud House, a show about a family that touched all of our hearts. So, what better way for me to honor this occasion than with an AU where none of the Loud kids are related? XD**

 **Please enjoy.**

* * *

Lincoln knew he shouldn't have been angry with his parents. Lincoln knew that they had no choice in the matter, that jobs were hard to come by and that a career opportunity in the city was the best way they could provide for him and his infant sister, Lily. Lincoln knew that, if he were more mature, he would have been upstairs with his parents, helping them unpack everything.

But Lincoln didn't care.

The young boy sat on the ground, leaning on the wall of the building, as he looked at a small picture he had. It was a picture of him and his friends at an arcade; Gus's Game and Grub, one of the many things he would miss from Royal Woods. He smiled at the cheery faces of his friends; Clyde standing next to him, trying (and failing) to give him bunny ears, Paige flashing the camera a big thumbs up, and Ronnie-Anne slamming a box of pizza into his face, while hers was alit with mischievous glee. He then turned the photo over to the other side.

 _Good luck in the city._

Five words. It should have taken a second or two to read them, but Lincoln had been reading and rereading those words for an hour, and when he didn't read them, the buzzed around in his head, constantly repeating themselves.

 _Good luck in the city._

The white-haired boy sighed. Despite his parents reassurances, he was sure that he would never find friends as great as those three. In fact, he wasn't even sure he wanted new friends. Why should he? Clyde… Paige… Ronnie-Anne… Girl Jordan… even Chandler on rare occasions… those were his friends, now and forever. Otherwise, what was the point of that BFF stuff? To sell dumb bracelets and necklaces to naïve teenagers?

But it didn't matter now; all he could do was wait until he was old enough to hitchhike safely, then he could take a ride and return to Royal Woods…

"What are you looking at?"

"GAAAAH," screamed Lincoln, surprised by the sudden monotone voice in his ear. After overcoming his initial shock, he looked up to see a young girl. She couldn't have been older than ten, Lincoln thought to himself after quickly scanning her over. Yet, despite that, she looked very inappropriate for her age. Black nail polish, depressing goth clothes, a skull pendant… what kind of parents would let her do this to herself?

"You shouldn't sneak up on people like that, you know," snapped Lincoln angrily at the girl.

The Goth girl shrugged. "It's just how we of the Lilitu breed wander through the mortal plane."

"L… Lilitu breed?"

"I'm a vampire."

"Oh, I see," said Lincoln as he slowly scooched away from the goth. Bad enough that she looked crazy, but she also acting like it. No one from Royal Woods would ever claim to be a vampire. Well, except for that weird Haiku kid, but Lincoln never really talked to her…

Unfortunately for Lincoln, the "vampire" did not take note of his discomfort and attempts to back away, as she got down on the ground and sat next to him. "You didn't answer my original question, though," she continued in her deadpan tone, "What are you looking at?"

Lincoln sighed. It appears he was going to be stuck with her for a while. "It's… it's nothing, really. Just a… picture of my friends from back home."

Lucy gasped. "So you're the new kid."

"Y…yeah. Why is that surprising?"

"Because we, well, every other kid in this apartment is a girl. You're the first boy we've had in a while."

"Great," muttered Lincoln sarcastically, "Not only am I never going to see my friends again, but now I'm stuck in a bad harem light novel…"

"Just a quick question," continued the goth, not noting the sardonic comment that Lincoln had made, "What's your name?"

"Well, my name is Lincoln, though some just call me Linc."

"Sigh… Of course. Everyone's name begins with 'L' around here," Lucy said, looking wistful, "And here I thought we would finally get some variety."

"Sorry to disappoint."

"Apology accepted," said the goth, again not noting the sarcasm, "It's probably for the better; variety is the spice of life, and spices are always used to chase away vampires and ghosts."

"Then I wish I had some right now," Lincoln said with a bit of a smile, so she would know that he was only joking. He didn't know why, but he felt the young girl was starting to… warm onto him. "So, you asked me my name, I guess it's only fair for me to ask: What's your name?"

Lucy gave a small flicker of a smile back at him. "The name that I was given by my parents or the name that I was given by the great and mighty Outer Gods, to whom only the foolish pray?"

"Um… the name your parents gave."

"My name is Lucy. I won't tell you my last name, though, because then you could bind me with a dark ritual," said the goth girl. If there was one thing Lincoln really took notice of, it was the sheer conviction Lucy had of her supernatural nature. It was… kind of dumb, but also kind of endearing. It reminded Lincoln of his and Clyde's devotion to Ace Savvy and One-Eyed Jack.

In a way, it was exactly the same thing.

"You know, I'm really glad someone like you is here," said Lucy suddenly.

Lincoln narrowed his eyes a bit at her. "What do you mean?"

Lucy gave another small smile before flicking his hair. "Before, I was the odd one out. All the other girls had brown and blonde hair, so they always asked me if they could dye my hair so it looks like the rest of them. I'd always so no, but…" she trailed off before coming back to her point, "But now, they have a 10 year boy with the white hair of a sage to focus on. Prepare to be assaulted with questions about it."

"Don't worry about that. I'll just answer the same way each time: an accident involving a toy rabbit, a watermelon, half a tube of toothpaste, and a lack of concern for chemical safety," Lincoln said half-jokingly, half-seriously, "but I'm not actually 10. I'm 11."

"Not much of a difference," Lucy noted as she rubbed her chin, "Although that does mean your closer to Lynn in age than me."

"Lynn?" Lincoln repeated, "There's a girl that shares her name with my dad?"

Lucy nodded. "She's my best friend, too, even though we have very different interests. You should talk to her once she gets back from her swimming tryouts. You two might become friends."

"Well… maybe not now. Or too soon, really," said Lincoln uncomfortably, as he rubbed the back of his neck. His encounter with Lucy was somewhat pleasant, but it still caused by Lucy approaching him.

Lincoln did not have a good history with approaching girls; The first time, he had scared off Christina by being too bold, and deciding it was a good idea to, within the first few sentences of their conversation, rip off his shirt and show her his single chest hair. The second time was with Ronnie-Anne, as one day while she was chasing him down on the field, he accidently turned around and kissed her. She socked him in the eye, but they became closer after she mistook it for an on-purpose kiss (not that Lincoln was going to correct her). The third time with Paige was just luck, as he happened to stand next to her in line for Dance Dance Revolution, and they had a blast playing together. And the last time, he had tried to impress a new girl with a leather jacket and a greaser hairstyle, but just made an awkward display of himself.

A Casanova he was not.

But when he noticed the disappointed look on Lucy's face, he quickly attempted to reassure her, "No, no, wait, what I meant was that… I'm busy… still moving in. But if your friend Lynn is as laid-back and thoughtful as you are, then I should have a good time talking to her."

Lucy flashed the boy a very wide grin, which was unusual for the stoic nature Lincoln had gotten used to about her. "Oh, you poor, sweet boy…"

* * *

 **Well, hope you enjoyed. And, please, feel free to make any requests or suggestions for future plots. It can be absolutely anything at all (I feel like I'm going to end up raising the rating because of my rash words).**

 **Happy Two Year Anniversary, everyone.**


	2. Chapter 2

**LoudAutomata16: Look at those numbers and weep, Hidden. I told you this story would be a success.**

 **Hidden717: I'm… I'm shocked. I'm surprised.**

 **Automata: Yep.**

 **Hidden: So... can I join in?**

 **Automata: Well, I did miss you in last chapter's A/Ns, so why not?**

 **And, in all seriousness, thanks to everyone for the amazing reception this story got, especially after only one chapter. Anyways, please enjoy.**

* * *

As Lincoln finished his talk with Lucy, he went back inside the building, and the boy couldn't help but notice that he had a bit of a glow in his chest, a sort of warm feeling. Lincoln thought about what caused such a great feeling inside him, until he realized…

"Oh my God, I accidently made a friend…" said Lincoln to himself.

While making friends was normally a good thing, Lincoln did not think so in this particular instance. In fact, this made him a bit worried.

He pulled out the photo of his friends from Royal Woods. It was a bit crumpled, now, and the writing was a bit faded, but it still was a comforting sight. "What if I make friends here, and then I forget about my friends back home?" Lincoln said to himself, a bit worried. He didn't want to replace his friends; no one could ever even come close to the people he knew back in Royal Woods.

Still, the words on the back of the photo rang in his ears. _Good luck in the city._ Wouldn't his friends wishing him the best mean they would want him to find other friends…

"Whatever," Lincoln sighed to himself, "Luck is stupid, anyways. Just causes trouble for people. Especially people like me."

The 11 year old decided it was finally time to head back upstairs. Sure, his parents weren't going to be very happy with him, ditching them to go look at a photo, but they would probably drop it if he offered to look after his sister for the day. And with that thought in mind, Lincoln hit the button to call the elevator.

He looked at the small screen that read which floor the elevators were on. Neither of them moved. He hit the button again, to see that, once again, the numbers did not change.

"Come on, COME ON!"

Lincoln kept mashing the button to the call the elevator, but there was no response. The light of the button stayed dimmed, and the elevators stayed at the floors that were on. The young man groaned in frustration, as he leaned against the wall and slided down. If the elevator wasn't going to work, then he would have to take the stairs. Of course, seeing how he and his family lived on the eleventh floor, it was not going to be easy getting up there…

"Hey, are you having problems with the elevator?"

Lincoln stopped from his hand exercise to turn to the source of the question. The source of the question was a small blonde girl, probably six or seven, with dirty overalls, a worn out red cap, a noticeable gap in her smile, and, for some reason, a frog in one of her hands.

"Yeah, I am," said Lincoln, a bit frustrated. The damn elevator wouldn't work, so now he would be stuck entertaining this little girl until he could muster the courage to climb the stairs. He pulled down on his eyes; why did things have to be so irritating?

The girl gave him an excited smile. "Hold my frog," she said as she quickly threw the amphibian at Lincoln, who juggled it around in his hands before finally getting a grip, much to his disgust. By the time he had finished this little act, he noticed the girl had rushed into the staircase, and was coming back out with a large red toolbox, which was about as dirty as her cap. Of course, the toolbox was very heavy, so the girl struggled a bit while pulling it towards the elevator.

"Um, do you want some help with that?" Lincoln offered.

"No thanks. Just hold on to Hops for a while," the girl grunted before finally making it. She opened the toolbox and pulled out a screwdriver, and got to work unscrewing the screws on the metal box around the button.

"Hey, hey, don't mess up the elevator more than it already is," Lincoln said with concern. He might have tried to stop the girl, but he was still holding onto her frog, "Just wait for the repairman to do his job."

"Oh, the repairman quit. Early last month," responded the young girl, not turning to Lincoln because she was too focused on her task.

"Wait, he quit. Why?"

"Well, he felt that the pay wasn't good enough to keep fixing everything. I mean, he had to keep fixing floors and ceilings because of Luna, toilets because of Lynn… hell, this elevator has been busted ever since last April Fools, which I guess was the last straw for him."

"What happened on April Fools?"

"Oh, Luan messed with the elevators so that whenever someone got in them, they wouldn't move and would constantly play that Rick Roll song."

…

"Wow… she sounds… psychotic."

Lana shrugged. "Ever since he left, I've been doing odd jobs around here, trying to keep this place in working order. The guys in charge of this apartment are happy because they don't have to pay anyone to do it, and I'm happy to fix anything for a little spare change and gum."

"I can't imagine your parents are too happy about their little girl being a plumber."

The happy face of the girl shifted into a more upset look. "Yeah… you're right," she said, "They always want me to act more like my twin, Lola. She's more... ladylike and proper than I am. She dresses in pink, has tea party with her dolls and prances on a stage for pageants, to the applause of hundreds. Meanwhile all I do is clean toilets and play with frogs and snakes," she ended with a sad sigh. Lincoln couldn't help but feel a flutter of sympathy for her, and a bit of guilt. This girl had, out of the kindness of her heart, decided to help fix the elevator for him, and he just went and hurt her with a careless statement.

"Hey, what's your name?"

The girl blinked at him. "Lana."

Lincoln got down on one knee, so he could be at eye-level with her. "Lana, it doesn't matter if your sister dresses in pink or does feminine things. That's just how she wants to live, just like how you want to live by repairing things and playing with slimy animals. Both ways are equally valid."

Lana stopped fiddling with the elevator controls to think about what the young man had said. Suddenly she turned around and gave him a big hug.

"Aw, thanks a lot," she said with a smile.

Lincoln didn't appreciate the fact that he was being hugged by what was essentially a stranger, but he bore through it for Lana's sake. He gave her a soft smile and patted her on the head with his free hand. "You're welcome, Lana."

The two separated and Lana continued working on the controls, as Lincoln sat back and watched. Finally, after a small while, Lana put the cover back on the controls and hit the button. A few seconds later, the doors to the lift opened.

Lincoln was very impressed. "How did you do that in only a few minutes?" he asked.

Lana gave him a satisfied smirk. "A magician never reveals her tricks," she said as wiped her tools with a cloth (a pointless exercise, as the cloth itself was very dirty). Lincoln handed the girl her frog, then entered the elevator and hit the button for the eleventh floor.

"By the way, I never got your name," said Lana as she rubbed Hops' head.

"It's Lincoln. Or Linc."

"Well, Lincoln O'Linc, since you told me you last name, I guess I should tell you mine. It's…"

The elevator doors closed together at that very second, leaving the tomboy's last name an eternal mystery.

"Did she think that O'Linc was my last name?" Lincoln said with a chuckle. "I'll be sure to correct her tomorrow."

Then Lincoln thought about. "Then again, O'Linc is a pretty cool nickname…"

* * *

Lincoln twisted the doorknob of the door to his apartment. Locked. He sighed. His original plan was to sneak back in without either of his parents noticing, robbing them of the chance to chastise him. He knocked on the wooden door and waited a few seconds.

He heard footsteps approaching the door, then the sound of the locks being opened. The door opened, and Lynn looked down at his son.

"Lincoln," he started sternly, "Where were you? You know that we needed your help unpacking and organizing our things."

"S-Sorry, Dad," said Lincoln with a bit of shame, "I was just… downstairs… thinking about stuff…"

As much as Lynn wanted to stay angry at his son, he felt a sense of understanding with the boy and his facial expressions suddenly softened, as he gave a sigh and put his hand on Lincoln's shoulder.

"Lincoln… I know that you didn't want to move away from Royal Woods. I would rather stay there too. It's safe, it's nice, and it's where our family has been for so long…"

"Then why didn't we stay?" Lincoln interrupted.

"Because, son," continued Lynn, "Things are changing. Times are changing. They aren't the way they were in your father's day, or in your grandfather's day. When we got the opportunity to work here, it was so much better than the deal we had back home. It meant that we could give you and your sister Lily the lives you deserved. Do you understand, sport?"

Lincoln gave a small nod. "Doesn't mean I have to like it…" he muttered.

Lynn gave him a smile, and patted him on the head, "No, son, no it doesn't. And we've pretty much finished unpacking, your mother and I, so why don't you just go to your room. You can finish the rest tomorrow."

Lincoln gave a soft smile, "Sure thing, Dad. Thanks."

With that, Lincoln left to his room. He jum ped onto his bed, with no idea what to do until bed time. He spied his walkie-talkie on the small table near him, so, without thinking, he grabbed it and decided to try and contact Clyde.

"Come in, Clyde. Come in, Clyde. This is Lincoln. Over."

Nothing.

Lincoln knew that was what was going to happen. It was impossible for a walkie-talkie to carry the signal across all that area. Still, he couldn't help but be a little saddened by this. Didn't people always have crazy things happen to them all the time for no reason? Why couldn't he be the owner of the ultra-powerful walkie?

And now he was being delusional.

Lincoln was about to get up and find his video games in one of the backpacks he had, when he suddenly heard a loud guitar playing coming from the floor below. It was very loud heavy metal, but then a second sound pierced Lincoln's ears, a sound that was much louder than any guitar playing; an infant crying from his parent's room.

"Lily…" he said to himself. He got up from his bed and rushed over to his parent's room. In a large crib at the corner of the room was a crying Lily, screaming at the top of her lungs, her face as red as could be. Lincoln recognized this particular mode of crying.

"Oh no, Lily. Did that noise wake up you from your nap?" he asked sweetly. Lincoln then rushed over to the window and opened it. He looked down to see that, whoever was below them and was playing that music, had left their window open.

"HEY! You woke up my sister. Can you keep it down?" shouted Lincoln through the window.

The music suddenly stopped, and a teenage girl with short brown hair and paperclip earrings stuck her head out the window. "Sorry about that, little dude. Forgot the window was open," the girl said in a raspy voice, with a sheepish look on her face. She then ducked her head back in and closed the window.

Lincoln closed his window as well, and turned his attention back to Lily. He picked her up and started gently rocking her.

"Don't worry, Lily. Your big brother Linky's got you," he said, trying to reassure her. The baby's crying suddenly decreased in intensity, as Lily stopped screaming, but started whimpering and gave her brother tearful eyes. Lincoln gave her a soft smile, and Lily dug her face into his shirt and tried to wipe her tears and snot with it. It didn't matter to Lincoln; he had plenty of orange shirts.

"Alright, Lily. Are you feeling better?" Lincoln gently asked. The tears had stopped, but Lily still looked a bit distressed and still kept sniffling. Lincoln set her down in her crib and gave her the teddy bear she always slept with. Lily smiled when she saw her favorite bear, and gave it a big hug, effectively melting Lincoln's heart.

"Glad to see you're feeling better," Lincoln said. He grabbed a small table in the room and pulled it over to sit next to his only sister, wanting to see her off to sleep. Of course, rather than go back to sleep, the baby looked at him with wide eyes, until she suddenly lifted her hand and lightly slapped his knee.

"Linky," she said with pride.

"Yeah, that's my name," Lincoln said with amusement.

The baby then pointed at herself. "Lily," she said, before bursting into giggles.

Despite the rough times he was having, Lincoln couldn't help but forget his troubles for a little while. He was thankful that Lily was there. She was… the one constant in his life, that no matter where his parents decided to go, whether it was Royal Woods, the city, or Madagascar, she would always be there, his precious little sister.

Plus, she was really cute when she had her blankie.

So Lincoln sat with her for a few minutes, watching as she giggled to herself, played with her blankie and teddy, and constantly point back at him and triumphantly say "Linky," over and over, as if it were an achievement each time. And every time, he would give her a soft touch and whisper "Lily." Eventually, the baby gave a small yawn and began to close her eyes. She tried to keep them open for a few seconds, but quickly gave up and lay her head down on her blankie and went straight to sleep.

Lincoln watched over her for a few more seconds, then went over to the window to ensure that loud girl from before wouldn't be able to disturb her. He then went back to Lily and gave her a kiss on her head.

"Good night, Lily. Maybe tomorrow I'll tell you about the two girls I met today," he whispered softly.

He then got up and left his parent's room. Feeling a bit thirsty, he went to the kitchen to get a glass of orange juice. When he entered the kitchen, he saw his parents sitting there, discussing something.

"Hi Mom, Hi Dad," Lincoln greeted as he entered. The two stopped their conversation and looked towards their son.

"Hi sweetie," said Rita, as she got up and hugged Lincoln.

"Um… Mom?"

"Just wanted to thank you for taking such good care of Lily."

"Wait, you saw that?"

"Yes. As soon as I heard that racket and Lily crying, I wanted to go comfort her, but then I saw you rush in and take care of things," she said as she broke off the hug and kissed her son on the cheek, "You might not have impressed me today when you ran off, but you did an amazing job with your sister."

"Gee, thanks, I guess."

"And we got more good news for you, sport," said his father, "On Saturday, we're going to be going to a "Welcome-To-The-Neighborhood" sort of thing on the first floor. Almost all the tenants are going to be there," he then gave his a grin, 'And I heard a lot of them have daughters."

For some reason, Lincoln's father encouraging him to go after the girls in the building gave him a rather weird feeling.

"Yeah, I… I already met two today,"

"Great. See Lincoln? You're moving on from Royal Woods already," said Lynn.

…

…

…

The mood immediately changed. Rita jabbed her husband with her elbow, but the damage had already been done. Lincoln didn't say anything to respond. He just gave his dad a blank look, then quickly walked out of the kitchen.

"Lynn," chastised Rita, "Now he's going to try to not make friends. You have to let it be natural."

"Sorry, honey, I just… blurted it out," said Lynn. He looked towards the door to the kitchen. "I just hope he forgets about this nonsense of holding onto his friends soon. It's not healthy."

"Give the boy time," said Rita, "He lived his whole life in Royal Woods. Everything he's ever known, everyone he's ever known, they're all back there. The same thing goes for both of us. I miss my friends at the Book Club, and I know you miss your Van Enthusiast."

"Yes, but the Van Enthusiasts weren't going to pay my bills and send my kids to a decent school," Lynn snapped back, before rubbing his eyes and giving his wife an apologetic look, "Sorry about that. I guess… I guess I really do miss that place."

Rita gave him a small smile. "We'll make this work."

Back in his room, Lincoln was lying on his bed, looking at the small photo of his friends. He had accidentally spilled a little of his drink of his hand, and didn't notice until he grabbed the photo, at which point it left an orange stain in the corner.

Lincoln looked at the stain for a few seconds, before he put the picture down on his bed and went to sleep.

* * *

 **Automata: Well, that was a bit of a wish fulfillment chapter.**

 **Hidden: How so?**

 **Automata: It's wish-fulfillment to get an elevator fixed in an apartment. The close buttons in our elevators have been busted for months now.**

 **Hidden: Oh well. Anyways, hope you all enjoyed this chapter. Next chapter, if you all don't mind a bit of a spoiler, revolves around a certain pageant princess and…**

 **Automata: Ooh, ooh, let me say it.**

 **Hidden: Fine.**

 **Automata: …and… a certain athlete (I'm so happy right now).**


	3. Chapter 3

**Automata: First things first, thank you all so much for the amazing support this story has gotten. In just two chapters, we're up to 32 reviews, 37 favorites and 44 follows. We really can't thank you enough. And second… well…**

 **Hidden: Looking over the reviews, we feel like we need to do a little explaining.**

 **Automata: Listen, in regards to shipping between Lincoln and the girls… we're still undecided. Honestly, we could go either way. So just be patient with us for a while.**

 **Hidden: If you can't be patient, well, it's not like we own the "Loud kids are unrelated" idea. Write your own story. Make a request with your favorite author. Go wild.**

 **Automata: If you do decide to write your own, let us know, we'd love to read it.**

 **Hidden: *mutters under breath*** _ **And spam it with negative guest reviews.**_

 **Automata: Quiet, Hidden. You'll let them onto our plan…**

* * *

If the events of last night hadn't soured Lincoln's mood enough, then his first day at his new elementary school did the trick.

Whenever Lincoln had watched one of those movies about a kid moving into the city, and slowly finding that all of their classmates were malicious bullies that existed for the sole purpose to torment them, he had always laughed and reasoned with himself that no one in the real world would really go out of their just to be a jerk to the new kid. Of course, he was proven wrong when he sat down in his seat and found that someone had drove their scissors through the chair. This meant that not only did someone hate him for no good reason, but that they hated him for no good reason strongly enough to sit in a classroom by themselves for a long enough time to open a hole in a chair with scissors. The mocking laughter of his peers didn't help, and the whole day had just gone downhill from there…

Lincoln sighed with frustration. He didn't want to think about it. Why couldn't one thing go right in his life?

But at least now, the day was over. He could finally just sit in his room, naked to his underpants, with a cold soda in one hand and a new issue of Ace Savvy in the other…

"Lincoln," his mother said as she peeked through the doorway, "I know you might be a little tired from your first day at school, but I need you to go down to the nearby mini-mart and pick up some things."

Lincoln glanced up from his comic, then gave an aside glance to the readers.

"Ok, Mom," he said, not even trying to defend his relaxation time, "What do you need me to get?"

Rita smiled, and dug into her pockets to reveal a small crumpled piece of paper. "Everything we need for now is on the list. I'll try to find some time later this week to go grocery shopping somewhere a little more… what's the word I'm looking for…"

"Developed?" offered Lincoln.

"… assorted, is what I was going to say," Rita's eyes narrowed at Lincoln. He gave her a small grin and got up to change.

After putting on his signature orange shirt and taking some money from his mother, Lincoln made his way down the elevator to the ground floor. As soon as he got out of the lift, he heard the voices of two young girls. One of them was a familiar tone that shouted "I'm going to get you, Lola," while the other was a more high-pitched and feminine voice that kept repeating "I'm telling Mom!"

When Lincoln looked in the direction of the voices, he could see the repair girl from earlier… _Lana, right?_ He thought to himself… holding large piles of mud in her hand as she chased after a girl her size who was dressed in pink with a tiara on her head.

 _That must be her twin, Lola._

Whatever. It wasn't his concern. All he needed to do was focus on his mission to get whatever his mother needed from the store. He didn't have time for…

"Hey Lincoln!" said Lana, spying him suddenly and waving at him. By doing so, she had dropped her mud pies, leaving her defenseless against Lola, who had turned around and jumped on her with wet sponge in her hand, and a bar of soap in the other.

Lola pinned her sister to the ground, with a satisfied smile. "Now, I can finally do what I've always dreamed of," she said as she slowly lowered the sponge onto Lana's face, enjoying the look of fear in her twin's eyes…

"Alright, break it up you two," said Lincoln as he grabbed each of them by the arm and forced them apart.

"Wha… wha… UNHAND ME YOU SLIMY BOOGERMONGERER," said Lola in a demonic voice. Lincoln actually heard himself yelp as he let her go.

"Hey, don't be mean to him. Lincoln's new here," said Lana in Lincoln's defense.

"Yeah, like that's the reason you don't want me to be mean to him. You're just saying that because you like him," said Lola, pointing an accusatory finger at her sister.

Lana's face went red. "Wh… no, I don't. I mean, I like him, but not… like like."

"Oh really?" responded Lola with a smug look on her face, "Then why haven't you let go of his hand yet?"

Lincoln and Lana noticed that they were still touching each other. Now it was Lana's turn to yelp as she pulled her hand away.

"LANA AND LINKY, SITTING IN A TREE," Lola started singing, "K-I-S-S-I-N-G…"

"Ok, that's enough," Lincoln quickly interrupted, both for Lana's sake and his own (All it would take is the wrong person to hear), "You shouldn't be so mean to your sister…"

"Don't even bother, newbie. She's never going to let up on her sister. We've all tried to stop her," said a new voice. Lincoln turned to it and saw a girl approximately his age, with brown hair, freckles and a soccer jersey on.

"My name is Lincoln, not newbie," Lincoln said as he rolled his eyes, "So who are you supposed to be?"

"She's Lynn. The girl I told you about," said Lucy as she suddenly appeared behind everyone, causing four separate "GAAAHs" to go out into the air.

"Lucy, how many times have we talked about this?" said Lynn, "Just walk up to us, where you're visible, and begin a conversation."

Lucy looked Lynn dead in the eyes.

"No."

At this point, Lincoln was getting a bit frustrated with his new neighbors. And it had been less than five minutes, he thought angrily to himself. Lincoln decided the best option now was to back away from everyone. Luckily, he had an excuse to leave…

"Listen, it was… nice…" Lincoln said with a bit of hesitation, "…to meet you two, and as much as I would love to be a part of this little circus show, my parents gave me this, so I hope you can understand why I need to leave now," Lincoln pulled out the little paper and displayed it to the girls. They read what was on there, and… then they all stared at him with pity.

"Linky… I'm so sorry…" said Lola, with sympathy in her voice.

"How could they do that to you?" muttered Lana.

"I mean, your own parents. They're supposed to look out for you," Lynn said as she gazed at the ground.

Lincoln stared at them, completely confused. They were having some pretty weird reactions to a shopping list. Then a light bulb went off in Lincoln's head.

"It's not a shopping list, is it?"

They all shook their heads.

Lincoln looked at the note his mother had given him. **We locked the door, sweetie. Make sure to have fun :)**

Lincoln felt one of them put a hand on his shoulder. "If you ever need to talk about your loveless parents, I'm always willing to listen," said Lucy with a hint of emotion in her tone.

"Me too."

"Me three."

"Me the one after that."

"First of all, its four, Lana. Second, my parents aren't loveless. They just wanted me to go outside."

Lynn snorted. "Why would they need to force you to do that? Going outside is the best thing ever. You can do basketball, baseball, soccer, football, Frisbee, street hockey, rugbee…"

"Don't forget dumpster diving," offered Lana with enthusiasm.

"And ribbon dancing," said Lola with a bit of a twirl.

"And coming across a recent road kill, reminding you that the world is a random and hopeless place, ruled by the absurd, where all that we love and dream for can be snatched away at a moment's notice," said Lucy.

Despite himself, Lincoln gave a little smile at Lucy's morbid statement. "Look, it's not that I hate going outside, it's… well, it's complicated…"

 _I mean, what am I supposed to say? 'It's not that I hate leaving my home, it's just that I want to stay as far away from you people as possible…'_

"Well, whatever it is," Lynn said as she clapped her hand on the boy's shoulder, with a small grin, "you're stuck with us now. So, wanna spar?"

"N-no, thanks."

Lynn scoffed. "Baby…"

"Maybe he doesn't want to hurt you, Lynn," Lola said with a grin of her own, "He is taller than you, after all."

Lynn widened her eyes in horror as she stood back to back with the white haired boy and measured, finding that the small girl in pink was right.

"W-well… it's his shoes," Lynn yelled as she pointed at his footwear, "That's what's making him taller."

"Blaming it on shoes… did Lori teach you that one when she babysat you last week?" asked Lucy, causing Lana to laugh. What kind of a thirteen year old gets a babysitter?

Probably the kind that played baseball indoors… with eggs…

"She's lucky to spend any time with Lori," said Lola with adoration in her eyes, "I wish Lori would babysit for me. Then we could spend all of our time doing proper and mature lady things. Brushing our hair, applying makeup, guy talk…"

Lincoln looked at Lana in confusion. "Lori is the oldest girl here," Lana explained, "and my sister really looks up to her. Lola says that she wants to be exactly like Lori when she grows up," Lana then gave a little chuckle, "Hey Lincoln, want to see something funny?"

Before Lincoln could even answer, Lana turned to her twin and said, "I think Lori is actually at the mall with Leni right now…"

…

…

...

Lynn and Lucy gasped in horror as Lola stopped listing off things she would do with Lori, and visibly stiffened up. She then turned towards her twin, slowly… surely… a look of pure vitriol on her face… "Lana, dearie, I thought we agreed that you would never say the name of that… girl… who stole Lori's best friend status away from me," Lola said calmly, though Lincoln still found himself unnerved by her tone, even moreso than her demonic outburst earlier.

Not Lana. The girl hid her giggles behind her mouth as she let out an insincere "Sorry Lola," doing her best not to crack up at her twin's reaction.

 _I guess, whoever this Leni is, Lola must_ really _not like her,_ thought Lincoln.

The young girl seemed satisfied by her sister's response, as she visibly calmed down, causing Lynn, Lincoln and Lucy to all relax their tense muscles. They still stared expectantly at Lola, to which she simply beamed.

"Linky, your mother sent you out with a fake shopping list, correct?"

"Um… yeah…" Lincoln asked, "What does that have to do with…"

"If she gave you a list, then obviously, she had to give you some money, to maintain the illusion, right?"

Suddenly, Lincoln saw where this was going.

"Oh, come on, Lola. We just met, you can't start making demands like that…"

"But Lincoln," Lola said with a bit of a whine, "I need to stay well hydrated, especially after Lana chased me around earlier. Otherwise, how am I supposed to stay looking this good?" she asked as she flashed the boy puppy-dog eyes.

"Come to think of it, I'm a little thirsty too," remarked Lynn.

"Me three."

"Me…" Lana scratched her head and counted on her fingers, before pride fully bursting out with "Four!"

Lincoln gave the girls a weak smile. "Well, I wasn't going to buy anyone anything before, but Lana's improving math is something to be celebrated…" he joked weakly, drawing a short giggle from Lola and causing Lana to blush a little.

"Great. Let's go to the gas station," Lynn said with enthusiasm, "They have the best orange sodas. They are divine," she grabbed Lincoln's hand with warning and ran in the direction of the gas station with her notably athletic speed, dragging the notably unathletic Lincoln along with her, screaming the whole way...

* * *

Lincoln paid for all the girls' drinks (Lynn got a soda, Lucy a tomato juice, Lana a milkshake and Lola a high class sparkled water) at the cash register. He sighed when he realized he would not have any money for a drink for himself, and went to join the girls outside.

"So then I said to her 'You must have been breathing in too many fumes, Lis,'" Lynn said as she cackled, "Course, I haven't spoken to her since, she got so upset with me or something."

"Great. Lis. A new name I have to remember," Lincoln muttered as he rolled his eyes.

"It's actually Lisa. You probably won't have to remember her name, though. She almost never leaves her home, and I think I've only spoke to her once," said Lynn.

"Same thing here," said Lana, "She spoke to us together, and then ignored us ever since."

They all looked at Lucy, to see if she had a similar experience. The Goth girl nodded to confirm that was the case.

"She'll probably ask you to speak with her soon. I feel like she's shy. In that way, we're almost kindred spirits," said Lucy.

"Just as long as she doesn't ask me to spend everything I have on drinks for her," the boy muttered sarcastically. Lynn grinned at his response, and offered him her drink, to which he shook his head.

"Well, that's just how it is around here. You give, and you take. And since you're the newbie, you got a lot of giving to do before we accept you," said Lynn.

"And what do I 'take' in return?"

Lola scoffed. "How about the privilege to be in the presence of what is essentially American royalty?" Lola said as she pointed at her tiara.

"Don't listen to them, Lincoln," said Lucy, "We already accept you. I do at least."

"Aw, come on Luce. I'm just teasing the guy," Lynn said as she gave him a friendly punch on the shoulder, "I may not have said this before, but welcome to the apartment, Lincoln."

"Welcome to our fabulous social circle," Lola said with a smile.

"And welcome to all the craziness that goes on around here," Lana said with a mischievous grin.

"Well, actually, things have been pretty calm for me so far," Lincoln said as he rubbed the back of his neck, "I haven't seen anything to out there yet."

The four girls looked at each other, and smiled.

"He hasn't met Luan yet," they said to each other, before they burst out laughing, leaving the poor boy chuckling uncomfortably with them, unaware of what to expect next…

* * *

 **Automata: Hope you all enjoyed this chapter. We wanted to establish a little that, even though the family may all like each other on the show, if they weren't related, a lot of them would have different reactions to each other.**

 **Hidden: Also, if you think there's a chance for Lanacoln… No. Just no. It's basically our version of Clyde fawning over Lori.**

 **Automata: And, once again, thanks for the crazy amount of support you've all given us. My phone was buzzing like crazy during my History class. It was… so wonderful…**


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N: So far, we've met Lucy, Lana, Lily (no introductions needed, I guess), Lola and Lynn. So, that leaves us five 'sisters' we haven't met, or have had only brief mentions/appearances; Lori, Leni, Luna, Luan and Lisa. Well, get ready to cross some of those names off that list across this two-parter. Yep, first two-parter. Let's hope for the best.**

* * *

"Look, I get why it's called 'Street Hockey,' but we can't literally play in the street. We'll get hit by a bus."

"Fine… _whiner_ …" Lynn muttered under her breath.

"What was that?" Lincoln shot back.

"Nothing. Let's play in the stupid parking lot already," Lynn said.

Lincoln rolled his eyes as he and Lynn continued their descent in the elevator. As soon as Lincoln had gotten home from school, Lynn had knocked on his door, bringing with her two hockey sticks and a pair of puppy-dog eyes that Lincoln just couldn't say no to. And, well, his parents probably would have grounded him if he said no. Lincoln could feel the intense happy gaze his parents gave Lynn ("Hey, we have the same name. I think Linc will have to call you 'Jr.' to tell the difference.") as they saw her as the proof that he wasn't a complete social outcast.

"Here's another thing; you brought the hockey sticks to me, so why am I carrying them?" Lincoln asked. He didn't have the best arm strength, and the elevator was pretty cramped, so he felt very uncomfortable on the way down. Lynn was about to give what was probably an excuse disguised as an I'm-helping-you-in-the-long-run speech, when suddenly, the elevator stopped.

"Huh, we're not on the ground yet," Lynn noted, "I guess someone else called the elevator."

The elevator doors opened up, revealing a taller girl with braces, a long ponytail, and bizarrely enough, a pink flower on her chest. Lincoln thought that was weird enough, but then he felt Lynn tense up next to him when she saw the other girl.

"Oh, hey Lynn," she said with a friendly wave, "How's it going? Boy, seeing you really _lifts_ my mood. Ha-ha. Geddit?"

Lincoln gave a polite chuckle at the pun, but Lynn had a very different reaction…

"FLOOR IT!" Lynn screamed as she mashed the 'close button' several times. The other girl stood there, with an amused smile, as she watched the thirteen-year old panickedly try to close the elevator doors. After a few moments, the doors finally began to close.

"HA! Take that, Luan. This is payback for all the times you pranked me with pies and feathers. Now you'll have to wait forever for the elevator to get back to you…"

The elevator doors stopped, then began to open back up again. Lynn was baffled for a second, before she looked back to Lincoln, who had hit the open button.

"What?" he said with a shrug, "She called the elevator. It's rude to close it in her face."

"Exactly. Thank you, kind sir," Luan said with a mock hat tip, as she entered the elevator, squeezing her way through Lincoln and Lynn, "Name's Luan, by the way. What's your name?"

"Um… my name is Lincoln," he answered, before he remembered hearing the similar name before "Say, are you the girl that got the old repair guy to quit?"

Luan nodded with pride. "It was my finest work, too. Took me days to complete the whole operation. Only problem was that it was supposed to be a prank for Luna, but of course Lisa was the one who got stuck in there," she said with a bit of guilt, "Maybe that's why she hides in her home now."

"Well, if I were a four year old and I was trapped in an elevator with awful music by a malicious prankster, I'd hide for the rest of my life," Lynn said, "Hell, I want to hide right now."

"Aw, thanks for the compliments, Lynn," Luan said cheerfully, to which Lynn responded with a hiss.

Finally, the elevator reached the ground floor, and the trio exited into the main lobby. "Well, it was nice meeting you, Lincoln," Luan said with a wave, "I think we can become good friends. I certainly felt _link_ ed with you. Ha-ha. Geddit?"

Lincoln gave another small chuckle, to which Luan smiled and took her leave. Then, he felt two sharp punches on his shoulder.

"Ow," he complained, "What was that for?"

"Two for holding the door open for her, and the third was for counting the punches."

"Third? You only gave me two."

Lynn grinned, and gave him the third punch. She laughed a little at her own joke, while Lincoln gave her an angry look. "Can we just go play this game now?" Lincoln said tiredly, to which Lynn responded with a nod, and a kind offer to carry the hockey sticks while Lincoln rubbed his slightly bruised shoulder.

* * *

"Lynn passes the puck to herself… she shoots… and she SCORES… the crowd goes wild… Rah, rah…" Lynn imitated a crowd cheering after she smacked the hockey puck into the net. Lincoln tried to catch up with her, but she was way too fast for his unathletic build, giving her an easy chance to take the lead.

Still, Lincoln would be lying to himself if he said he didn't enjoy the game.

"Alright, Lynn. You may have a twenty-point lead on me right now, but prepare to replace that stick with a fork."

"Oh, why's that?"

Lincoln put on his most confident smirk. "Because you're about to eat my dust."

Lynn gave a small laugh. "Trash talk. I like that. But I don't see how I'll be able to hold a fork. It takes two hands to mop the floor with you."

It then struck Lincoln why he was enjoying himself so much. He looked back to Lynn and realized that… she reminded him of Ronnie-Anne.

Ronnie-Anne. That was a name he tried not to think about too much.

Lincoln sighed slightly as he started thinking of the girl he had left behind back home. She was his bully for a while, often putting sandwiches in his pants or pulling down his pants or… come to think of it, she did a lot of pants-stuff.

But it was one fateful day that Lincoln really got to know her. It started in the lunch break, when Lincoln was sitting with some of his friends, and they were talking about the one things boys on the cusp of puberty talked about; girls. Someone… Clyde, maybe Liam… had joked that Ronnie had a crush on Lincoln and they started their usual boyful mocking about Ronnie being his girlfriend, to which the white-haired boy responded with the fateful words;

"Guys, Ronnie-Anne is NOT my girlfriend. She's rude and gross and totally annoying. I'd rather lick the bathroom floor than kiss that weirdo."

The gasp that came after told Lincoln that she was right behind him. The girl gave him an aggressive look and started cracking her knuckles threateningly, to which he gave her a weak smile before running out onto the field, with her chasing after him. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately) Lincoln was not a good runner, and had decided to turn around to explain himself instead of running away…

BOOM. Two pairs of youthful lips locked together, much to the surprise of the two parties involved. Despite Ronnie pulling away the next second, and giving Linc a swift punch, he felt that he… enjoyed it, for the most part.

That night, Lincoln had a rock fly through his window, with an apology and piece of meat attached. The next day, he found her in the hallway and apologized for what he said and did, and the two had been close friends ever since. Sometimes, it felt like they were closer than friends…

That was, until the day he left.

"Um, Lincoln, you okay?"

Lincoln immediately snapped out of his little daze to see Lynn looking at him with concern.

"Look, if you want to stop, we can stop. And I didn't mean I would literally (Gah, I sound like Lori) mop the floor with you."

"No, no," Lincoln responded with a dismissive hand wave, "it's not you, or the game. I just… remembered someone from Royal Woods, someone I hurt…"

"Oh, who was it?"

"Well, when we were playing and trash-talking, you reminded me of a girl I knew from Royal Woods, a girl I had a crush on…"

…

…

…

"N-not that I have a crush on you," Lincoln said panickedly as his and Lynn's faces both flushed red, "I just meant you have the same mannerisms."

"Well aren't you a romantic," Lynn muttered.

"Y-you know, let's just back to the game. Hahahahaha," the embarrassed boy laughed nervously before he smacked the puck with his hockey stick. Unfortunately, he was not paying much attention to where he was aiming and his embarrassment caused him momentary super-strength, which led to the puck flying through the air at mach speed. Lincoln and Lynn ducked as the puck ricocheted off of walls, cars, and tires, going back and forth through the air like a wild UFO...

Until they heard the sound of glass cracking. The two looked up in horror as they saw that Lincoln, with his clumsy attempts to swat the puck, had accidently broken a window of a blue car.

"Oh no," Lynn gasped in pure terror.

"Um… it's okay. We'll just apologize to the…"

"No, Lincoln you don't understand," interrupted Lynn, and Lincoln couldn't help but notice that her expression was far more horrified than when she was in the elevator with Luan. "That car… that's Lori's car."

"What does that mean?" Lincoln let out in a panic squeak. Lynn turned to him, her eyes as wide as a deer caught in headlights, "It means that Lori is going to… going to…"

Lynn gulped. "It means we need to fix this car window before Lori finds out. Don't worry, Linc, I won't let you be turned into a human pretzel on your first week."

"Human what-now?"

Lynn didn't answer as she pulled out her phone and quickly dialed in a number. "Hi, Leni? Yeah, this is Lynn… Yeah… Listen, I need a favor… First off, I said favor, not flavor. And second, cinnamon is a food. But back on track, I need you to spend some time with Lori, and make sure she stays inside today… Because I asked politely?... No, it wasn't me this time… Look, it doesn't matter who did what. Can I ask you to do this for me?... Thanks, Leni. Mohammed Ali may be the best, but you're a close second."

She hit the 'end call' button on her phone, before turning to Lincoln. "Alright, Lori shouldn't be coming downstairs for a while. That gives us some time to figure out what to do."

"How about we ask Lana? She seems handy."

"We could, but she and Lola are visiting their cousin Lindsey, so that's a no go, bro."

"Bro…" Lincoln repeatedly absentmindedly, before snapping back to his current predicament. "Well, if we can't ask Lana, who else is there?"

…

"Maybe we could get Lucy to magic us up a new window?" Lynn said with an awkward shrug, like even she knew how bad of an idea that was.

Lincoln sighed as he slumped slowly to the ground. "Great. Just my luck. My parents move me out here because of money issues, and now I've gone and broken a window that they're going to have to pay for. What a great son I am," he muttered unhappily.

Lynn opened her mouth to say something, but quickly closed it. She knew she didn't have a good way with words, and didn't want to set the poor boy off. She then snapped her fingers, and told Lincoln "We still have one other option."

Lincoln looked up at her, his face as miserable as could be. "What's that?"

Lynn put on a squint, like she was in an action movie. "We need to go see Lisa," she said in a tough guy voice.

"Lisa?" asked Lincoln confusedly, "But I thought you said she was four years old."

Lynn nodded, her ponytail bouncing up and down as she did. "She's like no other four year old out there. Trust me when I say she's way smarter than even me."

" _I can believe that,"_ Lincoln muttered sarcastically under his breath, to ensure Lynn didn't hear him. Now was not the time to bite the hand that feeds him. "Let's go to her now," he said more loudly.

"Yeah, that's the problem… she kinda doesn't accept… guests, if you get my drift," Lynn said uncomfortably. Lincoln gave her a questioning look, before he remembered what Luan said back in the elevator.

 _Maybe that's why she hides in her home now._

"She has a hard-time with people, right?" Lincoln asked, getting another nod from Lynn.

"Well, I can definitely relate to that," Lincoln said, and he truly meant it. For most of his life, he had been an only child, and any friends he made tended to be coincidences, accidents or them imposing their will on him. Lincoln wasn't particularly comfortable around people in general, preferring the world of video games, sci-fi movies and comic books.

"Don't worry, Lincoln. I'm sure Lisa will help. And if she doesn't, I'll be sure to write you a memoir on how you died," Lynn kindly offered, "I'll call it 'Requiem for a Lincoln.'"

"Thanks Lynn, but, no offense, I doubt you even know how to write."

Lynn scoffed. "Please. I bet I can write better than half of the so-called writers on that fanfic website. I saw this one really bad story, about this show with one girl and her ten brothers, and the writer just wrote a story where they weren't related. Like, wow, what a creative idea, you worthless f-"

"Lynn, focus," Lincoln said as he tried to bring her out of ranting mode, "We'll just have to talk to Lisa, and hope for the best. Can I count on you to back me up?"

Lynn nodded. "Let's do this."

* * *

If there was one thing Lisa prided herself on (aside from her extraordinary vocabulary, impressive meta cognition and a sense of maturity that far exceeded even some of the older girls of the apartment complex) it was her precision. That she could, even with her developing toddler hands, perform complicated experiments that called for exact measurements was something she would gladly boast about if she had anyone to boast to.

The young scientist sighed quietly to herself. While she enjoyed the company of machines and her animal experiments, there was something... missing. Humans were very social animals, after all, and it was basically a requirement for them to communicate and bond with others of their own kind; to share life experiences and stories, to encourage and be encouraged, to create powerful and memorable ties to other human beings, that could never be unraveled...

"Hey, Lisa! Your mom let us in, and we need to ask a favor," Lynn said as she entered the girl's lab.

 _I take it back,_ Lisa thought, _I much prefer isolation to dealing with... her..._

"Hello, fellow tenant and..." Lisa gasped when she saw Lincoln enter. The boy looked at her with confusion. "What's wrong? Is it my hair?" he asked as he started combing it with his fingers.

"Uh... yes. Yes, that's it. The bizarre coloring of your dermis' protein filaments (street name: hair) confused me as to whether you were a senior or a juvenile."

Both Lynn and Lincoln looked at her with confusion, causing her to sigh again. "Your white hair made me confused as to whether you were young or old," the girl then shook her head to get her thoughts in order, "But what are you two even doing here? I highly doubt my maternal unit would just allow two random teenagers to visit her four year old daughter."

"Yeah," Lynn said as she sheepishly rubbed the back of her neck, "We kinda... lied, and told her we were with NASA, and we were here for a secret mission."

"And she believed that NASA was recruiting teens to carry out their missions?"

"Well, she is raising a toddler that can bring garbage to life..."

"Touche," the girl relented with a shrug, "Well, what do you two require of me?"

Lynn looked at Lincoln, encouraging him to make the request. The boy nodded and looked back to the young scientist. "Lisa, we... I... broke a car window, and Lynn tells me that it belongs to someone named Lori..."

Lisa's face paled, and she put on a sad expression. "I'm sorry, tow-headed boy, but bringing back the dead is an impossible feat outside of science fiction movies. I could, however, make a clone for you..."

"My name is Lincoln, and I don't need a clone. I want to ask you; can you replace Lori's broken car window?"

The young girl rubbed her chin as she thought about it. "Have you asked Lana for assistance?"

"She's not here right now."

"I see. It's a good thing Lynn brought you here, then, because I'm practically your only hope in avoiding getting transfigured into a human pretzel," Lisa said as she wandered over to a large machine, "I can provide you with a suitable replacement window within a reasonable time-frame. How does... four hours sound?

"FOUR HOURS?" Lincoln and Lynn shouted simultaneously.

"Whoops, sorry. I forgot you said Lana wasn't here. Make it six hours," Lisa responded with an embarrassed smile.

Lynn let out a little sigh. "Let's just hope Leni can keep Lori occupied," she said, with only the tiniest sliver of hope.

* * *

 **I think I had a little too much fun writing this chapter. Oh well. And if you thought Luan's introduction in this chapter was a little short, don't worry, she comes back later.**

 **Other than that, I hope you enjoyed, and I'll see you for part 2.**


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N: Well, this chapter is going to be a little different. For the most part, this story has been told through Lincoln's perspective, and today, there's going to be a little switchup. Parts of this chapter will focus on Lincoln, Lynn and Lisa, and the other will focus on Lori and Leni.**

 **Just as a warning, I know nothing about fashion or color theory, so if I mess up on the Lori-Leni parts… You know…**

* * *

When Lori heard the knock at the door, she silently celebrated. The entire day had been a boring crawl, and she was simply laying there on the couch watching reruns of Operation Dessert Storm. Unfortunately, they were only replaying the worst episodes, so Lori was happy to get up from her sofa and answer the door.

She tried to peek through the eyehole at the top, but remembered that it had been broken a little while back thanks to Luan's shenanigans. So she opted to simply call out; "Who is it?"

"Lori, it's me, Leni. Can I come in?"

Lori gave a small smile. Despite the girl's… less than average brain power, she still was a good friend, and a joy to be around. The kids of the apartment didn't agree on much, but they could all agree on that. Lori grabbed the doorknob and opened the door wide open, allowing Leni to enter her home.

"So… Leni, not that I mind, but why are you here exactly?"

"Oh, because Lynn ca- I mean… fashion advice?" she said with a weak smile and shrug of the shoulders. Lori's eyes narrowed at her; as much as she would like to pretend otherwise, Leni was the fashion model expert, so there was no need for her to come to her for advice. And more importantly, she was very discomforted by the mention of the tomboy…

"Leni, did you say something about Lynn?"

"Uh, no, no," she denied as she started to sweat. Leni knew she wasn't a good liar. Lori continued to search her face for some sign of lying, before giving up and opting to smile at her friend, "Well, I guess it doesn't matter. Did you say something about fashion advice, though?" Lori said with a renewed interest. Leni nodded excitedly, and the two girls grabbed each other's hands and let out a high-pitched "AHHHHH!" before they both rushed off to Lori's room.

* * *

Back at the lab, Lisa was hard at work with some scraps of glass and plastic and other materials she had, melding them together in the shape of a car window. She knew the operation was delicate, and that the measurements of what she was creating had to be precise. Just a few extra millimeters in length, or a small miscalculation in the width and the entire process was for nothing. Of course, it might have been easier to work were there not two ignoramuses playing around in her lab, touching inventions that they shouldn't have.

"Lynn, Lincoln, correct me if I'm wrong, but weren't you two the ones who came to me?"

"Yeah, what's your point?" Lynn said as she pointed a freeze ray at a fearful Lincoln.

"In return for me assisting you with your problem, can you two please respect lab safety protocols? Don't touch anything, don't do anything, this place is very dangerous."

"Aw, Lisa, I didn't know you cared so much about our safety."

"Um… sure, that's what I meant," Lisa said hesitantly. She was more worried they would cause an explosion and destroy her hard work, but whatever made the other girl happy to believe.

"Ok, you heard Lisa, so put the… laser, raygun, whatever it is, down," said Lincoln nervously. Lynn rolled her eyes, but obliged him anyways. "So what are we even supposed to do here? Are we really just going to wait for six hours? I'm pretty sure I'd need to go home by then."

"There's nothing forcing you to stay here," Lisa said bluntly, "In fact, I highly recommend that you two leave me be. I'd like to be able to focus while I work."

"Well, you heard genderbent Dexter. Let's go back to hockey," said Lynn as she grabbed Lincoln's sleeve. Lincoln gave her an uneasy look, and looked back to Lisa. "Um, Lynn, can I speak with you outside for a bit?" he whispered to her. Lynn looked at him with confusion, but just shrugged and the two of them exited Lisa's lab to talk.

"What is it?" Lynn asked as she closed the door behind her.

"Well… this is going to sound weird, but… I think we should stay with her," Lincoln said as he scratched the back of his head. He knew that wanting to spend some time with a toddler was bizarre to say the least, but for some reason he felt a connection to the small girl, "I mean, you've seen her lab. It looks impressive, but… if she had the time to build all that, doesn't that mean that she doesn't spend a lot of time with people."

Lynn shrugged again. "Linc, I told you before… she doesn't gel well with other people. Some just don't like spending time with others. Nothing we can do about it."

"I know, but what if it's not that she hates spending time with people, but… she doesn't get a chance to? I mean, she is one of the younger people here, and I can't imagine her science talk would make her friends with someone like Lana."

"I guess, but why do you care if she gets social or not? It's not like she's your sister or something."

Lincoln gave a sigh, and decided to be straight-forward with Lynn. "Because… I can be a lot like her sometimes. Sometimes, I stick to myself and ignore the rest of the world, and I can convince myself that I'm fine, just being alone and playing video games and reading comics. But… and stop me if I sound too sappy… I think I like spending time with you all more," he ended with an appreciative and embarrassed smile.

Lynn folded her arms and thought about it, her fingers tapping her arm as she did. Eventually she gave a small sigh of her own, and beamed at Lincoln. "Yeah, alright, let's spend a little time with the short stack," she said.

"You're not one to talk about shortness, Lynn," Lincoln responded with a teasing grin. The punch on the shoulder was totally worth it.

Lincoln turned back to the door, and grabbed the doorknob…

"Wait, Lincoln, one last thing…"

The white haired boy looked back at Lynn, "Yeah, what is it?"

"Um…" the girl seemed slightly apprehensive about what she wanted to say, but she powered through it anyways, "Before, when you said you liked spending time with us… more than doing your own things… does that mean you like spending time with me?"

Lincoln looked slightly puzzled, but felt himself give her a friendly smile, "I do, Lynn. I really like spending time with you. But… ease up on the shoulder punches, okay?"

Lynn laughed a little. "I'm not making any promises I can't keep, Linc," she said cheerfully as she walked past Lincoln and back into Lisa's lab. But Lincoln did note that she seemed a bit more relaxed and happy when he said that…

* * *

"Do you think maybe I should branch out from the khaki?" Lori asked Leni, as she pawed through her closet, looking for shorts that were not light brown. Leni, who was sitting on Lori's bed and watching her, responded with a helpful "Maybe you could try an all blue thing?"

"Can they be darker blue?" Lori asked as she lifted up a pair of dark-blue denim shorts. The look of horror and disgust on Leni's face told the seventeen year old all she needed to know. "Ok, then, it should be the same shade of blue, right?"

"Um… maybe blue isn't the right color. How about you stick to khaki? You totes pull it off," Leni tried to compliment. It seemed to work, as Lori appeared happy with what she said. "Thanks, Leni. How do you feel about dresses? I'm thinking about trying to wear them, see how that goes."

"Ooooh, a dress," Leni said a bit teasingly, "What's the occasion?"

Lori blushed a little. "I shouldn't tell."

Leni's eyes widened as she slowly realized what Lori was hinting at. "O-M-Gosh. Is it… is it a guy? Did you find someone?"

"Well… yes and no… I, um, I met someone online. He... um... he sounds nice, and he lives within driving distance, over in Royal Woods."

"What's his name?" Leni asked.

"His name is Bobby, but, between you and me, I like to call him my Bobby Boo-Boo Bear," Lori said giddily, barely containing her excitement.

"And some other great news; after talking online for a few weeks, we're finally going to meet up. I think he said he's family with some of the people down at the bodega, so he and his family are going to be visiting next week."

"Oh, congrats, Lori," Leni said as she scooped Lori up in a hug, "I'm so happy for you two. And I have the perfect medicine in my first aid kit to take care of his injuries."

Lori looked confused. "What injuries?"

"You said 'Boo-Boo,' right?"

Lori could have corrected her, but decided to just accept it with a smile.

* * *

"I guess the appropriate thing to do now is to make small talk, seeing how it's only the two of us."

"What do you mean the two of us? What about Lynn…"

Lincoln looked over at the athletic girl and found her lying against back of her chair, fast asleep. It appears them sitting and watching Lisa work on the makeshift car window had bored her into a coma.

"Dang it, Lynn," Lincoln muttered, though still softly enough not to wake her.

Lisa chuckled a little. "Well, you shouldn't blame her too much. With the tiring lifestyle she leads, she probably needs all the rest she can get."

"Still, it's rude to fall asleep in someone else's home…"

"I honestly don't mind. Better than her running around and making a mess like she usually does whenever she asks for a favor," Lisa paused from her work and removed her glasses, pulling out a handkerchief in order to clean them from the moisture, "But enough about that. I suppose I'll ask you a bit about yourself, seeing as you are the new kid around here."

"Sure, ask anything."

"Very well. How many times a day do you poop?"

You know that moment in movies, when the character hears something shocking while they are drinking water, and then the spit it all out in surprise. Lincoln knew at that moment that the spit take was not an exaggeration. He even grabbed a nearby glass of water, drank some of it, and spit it out just to make his point.

"Lisa… I know I said ask anything… but seriously…"

Lisa shrugged. "Oh well, I'll figure it out eventually…"

"What?"

"N-Nothing…" Lisa said as she attempted an innocent smile.

Lincoln sighed softly, before he tried again with the little girl, "Lisa, how about this; how about we just talk about… your interests? What are you interested in?"

"Science, obviously. I study every field. Biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy, you name it. In addition to that, I have studied philosophy, the language arts…"

"No, I mean, what do you do for fun? When you aren't working or studying?"

"Oh… you mean what do I do in my leisure time?" Lisa asked, to which Lincoln nodded. The young girl rubbed her chin as she thought about it, "Well, it's not something I like to share with strangers…"

"How about I go first?" Lincoln offered, "For me, I mostly like reading Ace Savvy comics and watching sci-fi movies. Any type of sci-fi movie, really. Alien invasion, time travel, alternate history, space opera…"

" _Nerd_ ," he head Lynn mutter in her sleep, prompting him to stop talking.

"Well, I suppose I do enjoy the occasional romp in the realm of science fiction, bearing in mind the emphasis on _fiction_ ," she said, "But if I had to identify a solitary passion of mine…"

"Yes?" Lincoln prodded her on.

"It would be East Coast Hip Hop," Lisa said with a defiant nod.

…

…

"Sorry, did you say 'East Coast Hip Hop?'" Lincoln asked in shock.

The young girl took a break from her work to glance back at the white haired boy, "Got a problem with that?"

"No, no," Lincoln said, hoping he didn't offend his only lifeline, "I just… didn't expect that is all. You really are a surprising person."

Lisa seemed to smile at his comment, "Why, thank you. I aim to be unique. It may not aid my social life, but I couldn't care for nonsense like that."

"But… you know people need to be social, right? We can't just live by ourselves," Lincoln said to her, though he was beginning to feel like that was meant for himself.

Lisa sighed slightly, before grabbing a dropper of green chemical, dripping it along the glass to weld it together, "Lincoln, as much as I appreciate your sentiment, I truly can perform well on my own."

Lincoln got up from his seat, and walked over to Lisa, and put a hand on the toddler's shoulder. Lisa seemed to flinch at the contact, but she didn't push his hand away, giving Lincoln the confidence to get on one knee in order to look her directly in the eyes. "Lisa, listen, I know you think you can manage on your own, and that you don't need other people, but trust me when I say you don't want to go down that path. It's nice at first, having at that time and space to yourself, but… things like time and space are meant to be shared with others," he said kindly and warmly to the young girl.

"Well… it's hard for me to find people with… similar interests and intelligence as me, especially at my age," Lisa admitted.

"Well, how about this; I have a baby sister named Lily, and I think she's a pretty smart baby Maybe you two will get along."

"I doubt it. I know we may seem the same to you, but a baby and a toddler are miles apart. How old is she, exactly?"

"She's about one year old, so it's a three year gap. Still, I'm friends with her," he said as he pointed towards the sleeping Lynn, "and we're two years apart. And we're both friend with Lucy, even though she's way younger than us. Just… just give it a try."

"Well… I-I suppose it couldn't hurt to arrange a period of merriment and activity (street name: play date). I shall make the proper arrangements with your parents and/or guardians."

"I know you'll have a lot of fun. Plus, you should see her when she has her blankie. She's so cute," Lincoln said, almost proudly of that fact.

"I hope I'll have fun too," Lisa said, genuinely hoping so, before she pointed at Lynn, "You might want to wake up Snoring Beauty over there. I'm done with the window."

Lincoln looked at the car window Lisa had been building. It… it was perfect. It looked exactly like Lori's previously shattered window; same dimensions, same opacity. Lincoln rubbed his eyes in disbelief.

"I-I thought you said it would take hours," Lincoln said in shock.

Lisa grinned embarrassedly, "I may have said that to get you two to leave."

* * *

"Just a few more minutes, Leni, and we'll be done… Lori has a boyfriend, wow… Did she meet him at a fart therapy group?... Sorry, sorry, I'm actually really happy for her… Thanks Leni, bye," Lynn put her smart phone back into her pocket and looked back at Lincoln and Lisa, "Well, let's shoot this hoop."

Lynn grabbed the car window and carried it over to Lori's car, Lincoln and Lisa following her along the way.

"Do you need some help with that?" Lincoln asked.

"Actually, no. This thing is surprisingly light," Lynn said in astonishment.

"That is due to that fact that I used plastic and glass together. The window is a bit lighter than the original, but still the same," Lisa said proudly, "I should consider a career in the automobile industry."

"Well, you got a long time to decide," Lincoln said with a smile.

"Hey, Lincoln, I need a little help getting this window in. Grab the other side," Lynn ordered. Lincoln nodded, and rushed over to grab the opposite side of Lisa's window. "On the count of three," Lynn said, "One… two… three…"

Both of them pushed the window into place, playing around with the edges until they finally managed to shove it in exactly into place. The two stepped back, to observe their work, and beamed at each other when they saw that the car looked as good as new.

"WE DID IT!" Lynn cheered as she shot her fists into the air. "And Lori will never know the difference. Now you don't have to become a human pretzel, Linc."

"I still don't know what that is," said Lincoln, but he still was in a cheery mood nonetheless.

"Well, my work here is done. If you need me for anything, I'll be working on my school of flying piranhas," Lisa said as she turned to leave…

"Wait, Lisa," Lincoln called out to her. The toddler turned around to see what he wanted. Lincoln gave her a thankful smile, "Thanks, for everything."

"It was the least I could do, for the new kid," she said with a smirk, "I might be a few days late on this, but I welcome you and your family to the apartment." And with that, she left the parking lot and headed over to the elevators. Lincoln turned back to Lynn and asked "Well, what now?"

She shrugged, "I guess we've had a tiring day. You should go upstairs and rest."

"You sure you're going to be fine by yourself?"

Lynn scoffed. "I'll just call up Lucy to hang out. She's probably upstairs writing poetry or something else unimportant."

"Actually, I've been here the whole time," Lucy said in a deadpan voice behind Lynn. Both Lynn and Lincoln jumped at the sound of her voice. "Lucy, please stop doing that," Lincoln begged, "And, wait, if you were here, why didn't you say anything?"

Lucy gave Lynn a hostile look. "Because I was busy writing my unimportant poetry."

"Sorry," Lynn apologized sheepishly.

"And now, I take my leave. See you both later," Lincoln said with a wave, as he left the two girls together in the parking lot. As he jogged across the lot and towards the elevators, he got a good feeling of how things were going so far.

 _Well, everyone around here seems to be nice and helpful, and I'm making some new friends fairly quickly. I guess… maybe I can move on from Royal Woods…_

The thought of moving on from his entire life used to scare him, but now Lincoln felt an odd calm about the idea. Maybe… this was what growing up was like…

He thought about that before he hit the button to call the elevator. To his surprise, it opened automatically, and two arguing blonde teens exited.

"We don't have to go now. There's plenty of options in your apartment…"

"Leni, please, we can just drive over to the mall and… Move it, twerp," the one in light blue barked at Lincoln, to which he fearfully shuffled to the side. The two blondes walked past him, the one in light-green still trying to convince the other to not go to her car.

"Huh… I guess those were Leni and Lori... I guess I'm glad we fixed the window when we did," Lincoln hummed to himself before getting in the elevator and hitting the button for the eleventh floor.

* * *

 **I don't think I need to say who's going to star in our next chapter…**

 **Other than that, I think I'm going to have moments that pull away from Lincoln's perspective, and onto other characters, if only for a few small breaks.**

 **And, of course, thanks as always, for reading. I'm still having a hard time processing how well this story has been received.**


	6. Chapter 6

**You know what's really fun? When you type out three chapters for this story and decide to save them for later, and then your beautiful machine deletes them all. Needless to say, it was really hard motivating myself to rewrite this chapter, especially when you add the other stuff I'm working on to that equation.**

 **Anyways, enough of my whining; welcome back to another chapter. Luan and Luna had fairly minimalistic introductions and scenes in this story. Let's give them some bigger roles right now…**

* * *

"Honey, please hold still, I just want to see if this shirt will look good on you."

"Mom, you know I'm just going to wear one of my orange shirts. Why are you even trying this one on me? It's a neighborhood greeting tomorrow, not some kind of elegant gala."

This back-and-forth had been going on for a while now, as Rita had made her way into Lincoln's room with some new clothing for him to try on, and the boy had reluctantly agreed to do so. Still, Rita was determined to see her son wearing anything other than his usual. Unfortunately, she had a mother's eye for clothing…

"Mom, this shirt looks horrible," Lincoln complained. It was a really unfortunate article of clothing; a horrible display of pink, red, yellow and blue clashed with each other in the shape of flowers and petals. Lincoln physically cringed as he looked down at his clothing, "I can't wear this. Everyone will hate it."

"Oh, Lincoln, sweetie, it looks great on you."

"Mom, do you know what Lynn will think if I get caught wearing this?"

"Lincoln Loud, I do not care how old you are, you will not address your father by his first na- Oh, you mean the girl from downstairs," Rita corrected herself, "I'm sure she'll like it. She might think you look quite handsome in it…"

"C-Come on, Mom, it's not like that with her," her son protested with a nervous stammer. Rita just smiled and patted her son's head.

"Of course it's not," she said, in a tone that made it very clear to Lincoln that she didn't believe him, "But regardless, you shouldn't care what other people think. So you're going to keep that shirt on. No orange for the rest of the day."

"Fine. I'll just stay inside the whole day. That way, I'll be able to keep it on the whole day for you, and no one will see me with it. It's a win-win."

Rita thought it over, but looked back to her son and pursed her lips with displeasure. "Sorry, Lincoln, your skin has been really pale recently, and you've been spending too much time sitting around and playing video games. You need some sunlight and some exercise, for your own good."

"I… I can do jumping jacks in front of the open window…" Lincoln sheepishly offered. When his mother started shaking her head in disapproval, he shot back with, "Well, the only way I'm leaving out the front door in… this," he said as he moved his finger up and down his awful shirt, "is if you force me out the door. And I know you won't be willing to do that-"

* * *

"I've been getting kicked out of my home way too much recently," Lincoln said with a despondent sigh. He looked back to the door his mother had just forced him out of. He grimaced and crossed his arms across each other, and tapped his foot as he thought about it.

 _Ok, so I can't go back inside. That's fine. Really. I'll just hang around in front of the door. Mom'll be too busy with Lily to notice, and I'll just knock on the door a couple hours later, and no one will be the wiser. Heh, see this is why people call me the man with the plan…_

 _Wait, are those voices coming from the stairs?_

Lincoln hesitated as he heard what sounded like two people talking, and what sounded like one of them jogging up very quickly, as footsteps loudly and rapidly echoed. He tensed up slightly, before slightly opening the door to the stairs, just enough to hear more clearly.

"… come on, Luce. The elevators are for the weak. Move those legs."

"Sigh. No thank you, Lynn. I'll move at my usual rate."

Lincoln's eyes widened in horror. _Lynn and Lucy. Dang it. If they see me like this, I'll never hear the end of it. Every day, for the rest of my life, I can already imagine Lynn's snarky little comments and Lucy's mocking grins._

He closed the door, and quickly looked over to the elevator. Well, he didn't have too much of a choice, did he? He reached over to the button and pressed it repeatedly, only stopping when he feared he would accidently break it. He relaxed slightly when he heard the hum of the elevator rising, and only hoped it would arrive before they did. Lincoln crossed his fingers and bit down on his lip as he thought a silent prayer;

 _Please, please, let the elevator have been on the ninth floor or something. You just know Lynn is going to say something like 'Nice flowers. You need them to cover up your stench, Stincoln?'_

Luckily, the doors to the lift opened. Lincoln sighed a breath of relief as he leapt into the elevator, rapidly slamming the close button as the sound of footsteps approachedhis floor. The closing of the doors could not be more slow, but finally, after what seemed like years, they did, sealing shut, with Lincoln and his weird shirt inside.

 _Yes. Finally. I'm safe. And at least now Mom will know I was away for a while._

As Lincoln lay his head back on the back wall of the elevator, he frowned slightly. Now what? What was there to do outside? Was he really just going to spend the whole day running around, hiding from every footstep he heard? And for how long was he going to be hiding from everyone?

Probably not too long, seeing how the worst case scenario just happened… the elevator stopped, and its doors slowly started to open.

 _DANG IT!_ Lincoln screamed internally. He took a deep breath, mentally preparing himself for the worst…

"Oh hey Lincoln. Nice shirt," said Luan.

Lincoln blinked, a bit confused by her comment. "N-nice shirt?" he repeated.

Luan nodded. "Yeah, I like the flower design. I really _lilac_ it. Ha ha. Geddit?" Lincoln was completely baffled. She liked it? This thing was hideous. How could she even pretend to… and then he noticed the small flower she wore, and it suddenly clicked.

"Oh, I get it," he muttered, but shrugged it off. It was fine… at least she wouldn't be mocking him for it. Lord knows what barbs she could have come up with in that encyclopedic pun obsessed brain of hers.

 _You look nice today... Not really. Just pollen your leg._

 _It doesn't matter how hideous what you wear is. You're still my little bud._

 _Do those roses on your shirt have thorns? Cause you really look like a prick…_

"I over think things way too much…" Lincoln muttered quietly to himself as the fourteen year old comedienne let herself into the lift, "Anyways, where are you going now?"

"Oh, two friends of mine have a van parked outside, and we like to play cards in there sometimes."

"Two friends?"

"Well, yeah. One of them is a girl who lives in this apartment, so maybe you've seen her around by now. The other is more a friend of a friend, her roadie Chunk…" then Luan started eyeing the young boy with a curious look, "You know, maybe you should join us. There are some games we wanted to play, but we couldn't because they needed four players."

"Well… look, I'm thankful for the offer, but I'm sure the other two won't want a kid there…" Lincoln said hesitantly.

Luan shook it off. "It's fine. Really. Luna and Chunk are pretty nice, I'm sure they won't get upset. Do you listen to a lot of music?"

"I listen to SMOOCH on occasion, but no, for the most part," responded Lincoln, conveniently leaving out his fondness for the hit single 'Ooh, Girl!'

"Well, one thing to keep in mind is that Mic Swagger is the greatest artist of all time. Not greatest musician, greatest artist. Say anything otherwise and they will be happy to give you, and by extension _me_ , a twenty hour lecture about the greatness of his work. It'll really _rock_ your ears. Ha ha. Geddit?" she chuckled, before she quickly went solemn, "But seriously, just say nothing but positives about Mic. Got it?"

Lincoln thought about it for a second. He didn't really know how to play cards, but the van was a perfect place to hide from Lynn and Lucy. So as they reached the ground floor, Lincoln made his decision.

"Sure. I'm in."

* * *

"Dang, Luan should've been here by now," said Luna to her roadie, who was busy shuffling a deck of cards. The man liked to perform little shuffling tricks and techniques for his and Luna's entertainment. One he was particularly fond of was the Drunken Shuffle, which he performed before responding to the young rocker's concerns, "Give it some time, love. You know better than me how crappy your lifts can get."

"Yeah," Luna said with a bit of an amused grin, "No matter how hard Lana tries, she can't get them to go one week without them blowing up on themselves."

"Knock knock," came a cheery voice from outside, and Luna smiled when she recognized it was the voice of her friend.

"Sorry, Luan, not playing that knock knock game. Just open the door to your heart and open the door to the van," she responded, though she immediately wondered if she could have used a better song lyric.

 _I mean, open the door can't be that obscure a song lyric._

Before she could dwell on the matter any further, the doors to the back of the van opened, revealing to Chunk and Luna the familiar brown haired jokester, as well as a guest that Luna recognized.

"Hey, you're that girl who woke up my sister," Lincoln said.

"Y-yeah. I remember you from the other day. White haired kid," Luna said with a bit of a chuckle, before she looked a little guilty, "I hope I didn't cause too much of a problem for the little dudette."

"Oh, um, she's fine. I calmed her down," Lincoln said, now feeling a little guilty himself for bringing that up so quickly. "It wasn't your fault, you didn't know she was sleeping…"

"Still, my folks sometimes get noise complaints, so I should've known better."

"Um... you know you could probably sound proof your room, right?"

"I tried that once, with egg cartons. But we had to take it down after _someone_ wouldn't stop making egg jokes," she said as she shot an accusatory glance at Luan. The other girl just shrugged it off, "Don't you mean egg _yolks_? Ha ha. Geddit?" she punned, as the other three groaned.

"Come on. I had so many perfect egg puns to make, then you just took them away from me without hesitation. How was that fair?"

"Somehow, I don't feel too bad about that," Luna said with a small grin towards Lincoln. The young man smiled back; despite their bad first impression, she seemed quite alright.

"And by the way, nice shirt," Luna said, barely trying to hide her laughter.

"My… my mom forced me to wear it…" Lincoln mumbled.

"It's fine, little dude. Different strokes for different blokes," she responded, dipping into an English accent towards the end. Lincoln could tell she didn't believe him.

"So, we gonna play our game or not?" asked Chunk. Lincoln, Luna and Luan all nodded their heads and sat in a cramped circle, constantly shifting and moving to make a little more room amongst the music equipment. Lincoln was about to suggest moving the game outside, before he remembered that the whole point was to hide from public vision. "The game's called Cheat, or as some Americans call it, 'Bologna.' Course, it has another name, but I won't mention it in polite company," he said indicating towards Lincoln.

"Come on. I'm not that young."

"Sorry kid. You'll have to find that out yourself. It'll make it a little more fun, too."

"Fine," Lincoln grumbled, as Chunk started passing out the cards.

"The rules to Cheat are simple," explained Luna, "You get a deck stacked face down, and then you drop a card based on the last card that was dropped. Like if the person before you put down a three, you should put down a four…"

"Should?" Lincoln repeated.

Luna put on a mischievous grin. "That's where the fun starts, dude. You can put down something that isn't a four, and pretend it is. Of course, someone can call you out. If you did put down a four, they have to pick up all the cards and put it in their deck. If you put down anything else, you take all the cards. First one to lose all their cards wins. You got it?"

"I… I think I do," said Lincoln with a confident nod, "The rules sound simple enough. I'm sure I can win this with my incredible knack for plans…"

* * *

"I think I have three of every card," Lincoln said despondently. Ok, sure it was first time, and it was okay for him to mess up a little. But seriously, it was like he had the entire card set in his hand. How was he doing this badly?

"Aw, don't feel bad, Linc," said Luan, "We've been playing these for a while now. We're kinda pros at the game."

"That doesn't make me feel that much better," Lincoln said.

"Well, at least you don't have to worry about playing a false card. I think you have every card in the deck," Luan said with a bit of a laugh. Lincoln smirked in small amusement. "Yeah, I guess so…"

"Here, let me give you a little piece of advice for next time," Luna offered, "Let's say the person before you played a four, and you have a five. You could play the five no problem, but… if you have two of something else, like threes, you should play one of those. That way, you have a three and a five for later. Make sense?"

"Huh. That's… that's actually some really good advice," Lincoln said, "If I can get away with it once, then I get two free turns essentially."

"You got it, little chap," said Chunk with approval. He was the first one to run out of cards, so Lincoln assumed he must have been using that strategy a lot.

"Well, I'm clearly not going to win, so how about we start over with a new game, so I can practice this stuff."

"If that's what you want. But, we should warn you, we're keep an extra eye out for your cards," Luna said teasingly, "But seriously, you didn't do as bad as you thought. You must've had some experience."

"Well, one time, back in Royal Woods, my best friend Clyde took a stack of cards from his dads, and we played a little game. Of course, his dads freaked out when they saw us. They thought we would start gambling," he said with a light laugh. And as he recalled the fond memories of Clyde and Royal Woods, a small thought drifted to his head;

 _I wonder if Ronnie Anne would've liked cards…_

"Sounds like a good time," Luna said, as she grabbed the cards and gave them to Chunk to shuffle, "Well, let's star ov…"

Luna was interrupted by the loud opening of the van door, as someone from the outside opened it up. A familiar head peaked into the van.

"Hey, Luna, Luan, either of you seen Linco..." Lynn's voice trailed off as she caught sight of the young man. As she noticed his hard on the eyes clothing, her mouth grew into a wide amused grin, like it was the happiest moment of her life.

"Nice flowers. You need them to cover up your stench, Stincoln?"

* * *

 **I took the idea of Luan having playing cards for magic tricks way too far… And I like card games so…**

 **And with this chapter we wrap up the official Luan and Luna introductions, and next time we finally get to the end of the introductions, with Leni and Lori finally meeting up with our protagonist. Then we can finally get to the murder mystery subarc that I so desperately wanted to get to :D**

 **Ok, there won't be a murder mystery. I just wanted to use this opportunity to make the joke: 'This used to be a slice of life… but after what happened to Rita, this is now a slice of WIFE!' I'm terrible, I know...**

 **Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed.**


	7. Chapter 7

***reads comments from last time* Was… was I the only one who was forced to wear clothes I didn't like when I was younger? Seriously, she just made him wear a shirt. It's not that big of a deal…**

 **Well, semi-important announcement; I've decided to bump this up to a T rating, after all the references to alcohol in this chapter, and because of some plot points/jokes that may come in the future (yes, I'm willing to change it for the sake of one-liners). I won't go into specifics, because it'll get spoilery, but for the most part things won't change too much.**

 **I got a little more to say, but I'll leave that blabbering for the AN's at the end (Typical Auto. Has to have ANs at the start and end like the hack he is)**

 **Anyways, enjoy.**

* * *

Lincoln took a deep breath and looked at himself in the large mirror. He had made sure to throw the shirt his mother gave him away, pretending he had lost it. The despondent look on Rita's face made him twinge internally with guilt, but it was a bit worth it when he looked at himself in the mirror, dressed in his orange polo shirt. His eyes glanced up towards his hairline, and he saw the little tuft of standing hair on the back of his head. He licked his thumb and combed over it, and was not surprised when it shot back up as it usually did.

Still, his spirits weren't down. He had gotten to know most of the other apartment dwellers pretty well by now, at a surprising speed. He could even call some of them 'friends.' Sure, they punched him on his arm, snuck up on him despite his instance not to, played their music loudly and aggressively… come to think of it, why did he like these people again?

Lincoln simply shrugged with a small smile. "Oh well," he said to himself, "It beats having no one to talk to… Though, I guess that wouldn't have been a problem if we didn't move…"

Royal Woods. As much as he wanted to move on from that place, he couldn't find it in himself to do so. He grabbed his small photograph that he left on his desk, and glanced over it again, the smiling faces of Clyde, Ronnie Anne and Paige bringing him a small smile of his own.

"I guess… I'll never stop missing them…" Lincoln said to himself.

"Lincoln, honey, are you ready? We're about to leave," his mother called for him. Lincoln cupped his hand around his mouth and responded with "Coming!"

He tucked the small photo into the pocket of his pants, patting it for good measure. He exited his room, and made his way to the living room, where he saw his the remainder of his family. His father was sitting on the small chair, tying his shoelaces, while his mother held on to Lily, bouncing her slightly, causing the baby great joy and merriment, as she clapped her hands and babbled excitedly. When the snow haired child entered, she pointed at him and said "Linky!" in a glowing, happy tone.

"Where would I be without you, Lily?" he said fondly as he took the baby from his mother's hands, and starting tickling her on her exposed stomach with his fingers, and the baby responded by squealing with amusement, something that caused everyone present to go "D'awwwww."

"Well, family of mine, today's the start of the rest of our lives," Lynn said with an upbeat tone, "Let's meet the neighbors. Now Lincoln, I want you to be on your best behavior…"

"I know, Dad. I'm not ten. I can manage myself."

"Honey, I don't think you should be lecturing Lincoln about being on his best behavior. Remember last time we got invited to a large party?" Rita responded with.

"I… I don't know what you're talking about…" Lynn said as he rubbed the back of his neck nervously.

Rita smirked and even gave her children a small wink before responding with "Well, let me help you recall. You had a few too many drinks, really let yourself go, and then you ran up to the hostess of the party and proposed to her on your knees. You said 'It will be great, baby. We'll have a bunch of kids and get a TV show about that or something.' And when she said no, you broke down in tears and started crying," the woman began to chuckle slightly, "I would've been angry you proposed to another woman if it wasn't so gosh darn hilarious," she said before bursting out in amused laughter, her son and infant daughter soon following. Lynn simply stood there, blushing furiously at the memory, before he grinned as well and joined in with their laughter.

Thankfully for Lincoln, having fun seemed to be a communal experience in his small family.

"Well, I think we should get going now," Rita said, wiping a little tear from her eye, "Wouldn't want to be late for our own party."

"Alright. Let's move out," Lynn responded. Lincoln handed his baby sister back to his mother, and as he left the apartment, watching his dad fumble with the keys as he locked the door, and entered the elevator with his family, he breathed in calmly and gave himself a bit of a smile.

 _I may not be in Royal Woods anymore, but… I think I can make it here. Yep, everything is going to be A-Okay…_

Suddenly, the elevator stopped its descent. "Someone must've called it on this floor," Rita said, before muttering an annoyed curse under her breath. For some reason, Lily seemed to be amused by that.

The doors slowly opened, revealing the culprit; Lynn stood before them, and her face broke into the widest grin imaginable when she saw that Lincoln and his family were inside.

 _I take that back. Everything is not going to be A-Okay. It's all a disaster. A Lynn-sane disaster._

"Well, if it isn't Lynn Jr." his father said with a touch of fondness in his tone.

"What's up, OG Lynn?" she said, fist bumping the older man.

"Did you two seriously bond over sharing a name?" Lincoln asked in annoyance and disbelief, "You don't even know each other."

"Oh come on, Lincoln. Are you saying if you never met another woman named Lincoln that you wouldn't become instant friends?" Lynn said as she entered the elevator, the doors slowly coming together behind her. Before Lincoln could respond to what the young athlete had just said, his mother spoke first. "So, Lynn, why aren't you with your parents?"

"Oh, they're all downstairs with everyone else. I just needed to come back upstairs to get something important."

"Wait… everyone else? Does that mean… oh no, are we the only ones who haven't shown up?" Rita said bemoaningly.

"Honey, not that I blame you or anything, but maybe you shouldn't have spent so long in the bathroom applying eyeliner," the older Lynn said, but he quickly backpedalled after an aggressive glance from his wife, "Of course, I'm _very_ glad you did. You look very beautiful. Why I'm practically baking in your presence."

"Baking, huh? That reminds me," the younger Lynn whispered to Lincoln, giving him a wicked and mischievous grin as she did. Lincoln stared at her with confusion, wondering what she was implying, when the young girl subtly lifted her leg and…

"Lynn, did you fart?" Lincoln said in shock, a little too loudly. His parents, despite how repulsed they were with the smell, immediately glared at him with anger, and Lynn feigned ignorance and distress.

"Why, Lincoln, how could you accuse a _proper_ young lady like myself of doing something so vile like far… farti… it's so repulsive I can't even say it," she said, a faux innocent look plastered on her face.

"Lincoln, you apologize to your friend this instant," Rita ordered sternly, causing the young boy to gulp and immediately spit out a quick "Sorry, Lynn."

"Apology accepted. I wouldn't be a good _best_ friend if I didn't learn to forgive and forget," Lynn said, still smiling like the Cheshire Cat.

The elevator stopped at the appropriate floor, and Lincoln's parents rushed out of the lift to get some fresh air, trying to wave away the stink of Lynn's farts. The two children walked out more slowly and calmly after them, and Lynn gave Lincoln a confused look. "Hey, how come you aren't as affected as they are?" she asked, pointed at Lincoln's wheezing father.

"Trust me, you have nothing on Lily's dirty diapers," he said with a small, sad laugh.

"Poo poo," they heard Lily shout out loud with pride.

"Sounds like you got it rough," Lynn said with some sympathy.

"Well, you don't exactly make it easier by doing stuff like… that…" he said, jabbing his thumb back at the contaminated elevator. "Oh that's different. We're friends, Linc. We gotta make life a little hard for each other," she responded, wrapping her arm around his shoulder with a satisfied expression.

"You really promoted yourself to best friend status with me pretty quickly. What makes you think we're best friends?"

Suddenly, the girl's happy expression seemed to slip away, and she looked at the young preteen with a little more concern in her eye. "Well… because we are, right? Me and you, the cool kids on the block. I mean, you do want to be my friend, right?" she asked him, giving him some powerful puppy dog eyes, eventually resulting in Lincoln being unable to stay mad at her.

"Yeah, Lynn, we are friends. We're good friends, really. Still, I wish you wouldn't do stuff like Dutch Ovening an entire elevator."

Lynn whistled. "You know, you could always just… get me back sometime. Keep me on my toes, you know," she said with a competitive smile, yet it was more warm and friendly than usual.

Lincoln responded with one of his own. "Sure. But I'll warn you… you better watch yourself. They don't call me the man with a plan for nothing."

"I'll look forward to it…" Lynn said as she extended her hand, which Lincoln took, and the two of them shook, glaring at each other in the eyes. Of course, their glares seemed to linger for more than a few seconds, as their intensely competitive looks faded away and were replaced with more softened glances…

"Ahem," they heard the older Lynn clear his throat, and both tore away from each other's gaze and towards him, and found both him and Rita smiling at them, "Hate to break you two lovebirds up, but…"

"We're not lovebirds," Lincoln shouted back in a fluster.

"Well, you two are still holding hands…" Rita said a bit coyly, and even Lily sitting in her arms seemed to point at their intersecting hands with interest. The two looked down to see that was indeed the case, and Lincoln and Lynn both yelped as they threw each other's hand away from each other.

"… anyways, we're about to go in," Lincoln's father said, as he knocked on the door to the apartment, "So Lynn, can you show Lincoln and Lily around to the other children?"

"Well, he's actually met most of them. Heck, just yesterday I caught him playing cards with Luna and Luan in a van…"

"You caught him WHAT?" Rita screeched, as Lincoln cringed internally. _I guess that would sound pretty bad to her._

 _Come to think of it, it should've sounded bad to me…_

Luckily, before Rita could begin chewing him out, the door swung open, revealing a familiar blonde girl with sunglasses on her head and a greenish outfit, that Lincoln recalled seeing earlier.

 _I know her. She's either Lori or Leni._

"Hey, Lynn," he whispered, "Is that Lori or Leni? I forgot which one was which."

"Don't worry. She probably forgot as well," Lynn said with a mean snicker, before following it up with, "That one's Leni. She's one of the nicer people here. Remember, how she helped us out with Lori's window? Yeah, she's so nice that… she's the only person I ever feel bad for making fun of."

Lincoln patted her comforting on the shoulder, just to be sure, before he and Lynn focused their attention back on Leni talking to his parents.

"… and so you grown-ups go into the living room, while I'm supposed to, like, take your kids with all the other minors."

"Oh, so this a grown up separate thing, is it?" Lincoln's father asked excitedly.

"Even if they do have alcohol, you're not having any," Rita said sternly, as the older man slumped over in disappointment. "Yes, honey," he said sadly, holding back tears. Rita patted him comfortingly on his shoulder, before turning back to her son. She carefully put Lily in her brother's hands and told Lincoln "Now, Lincoln, I want you to watch over your sister carefully, okay? Don't take your eyes off of her. Can I trust you to be responsible with Lily?"

"Why don't you take Lily with you?" he asked.

"Because I want Lily to play with some other kids. She can't just stay with us all the time. Plus… I think you might enjoy her company," she said with a kind smile. Lincoln looked down at the infant in his arms, and even though the baby was busy blowing spit bubbles, she still looked back at her brother with awe and admiration in her eyes. Lincoln smiled gently at her.

"I… I guess it couldn't hurt to take her," he said, "I promise to look out for her, Mom. Trust me, I can be responsible for her."

"I know you can," Rita said as she ruffled her son's hair playfully, before turning back to Leni. "Well… Ms…"

"Oh, my name is Leni."

"Leni what?" Rita asked.

Leni held a finger under her chin as she tried to recall. "You know… I don't remember my last name."

"Told you," Lynn muttered to Lincoln.

"Well, Ms Leni, can you take our children to the other kids?" she asked, and was answered by Leni's enthusiastic nodding.

"It's the one thing Lori trusts me to do," she said with pride, as she gestured towards the three minors to follow her, "Come on, Lynn and the baby. You can come to, if you want to look after your granddaughter," Leni said sweetly to poor Lincoln. He heard a loud snicker, and looked back to Lynn, who was covering her mouth as her face went redder and redder, before she couldn't take it anymore and burst out laughing.

* * *

"I'm so so sorry about that," Leni said apologetically to Lincoln as they made their way to the room where all the kids and teens were grouped. Lincoln was annoyed with her comments, of course, but the genuinely sorrowful and apologetic tone made Lincoln much more forgiving of her mistake.

"Don't worry about it, Leni," he said reassuringly, "It happens to me all the time. Honest mistake. In fact, back where I come from, I actually did see an old man who looked exactly like me... orange polo shirt and all."

"So you're not mad?" she asked, and Lincoln shook his head with a smile. The teen girl's face lit up with happiness, as she let out an excited "YAY!" and her slumped over posture quickly transformed into... something else. The girl had her arms swaying side to side in a curved fashion, which immediately brought the image of a velociraptor to Lincoln's mind. He looked back to Lynn, who just shrugged and said "It's how she always walks. We've all gotten used to it."

"So, like, Lincoln, what's your baby sister's name?" Leni asked.

"Oh, her name is Lily. My parents had a whole stash of L-names ready to give to their kids, and they felt that this one was appropriate," he said as he lifted Lily up into the air before him. The baby smiled and laughed as she felt herself go up, even going so far as to stretch her arms out and start imitating airplane noises, which caused all three of the on-lookers to go "D'awwwwww."

"O... M... Gosh, she is so cute. Can I... can I hold her?" Leni begged, stretching her arms towards him expectantly. Lincoln hesitated, and cradled Lily a little closer to himself.

"Look, no offense, but we kinda just met. I'm sure you're a nice girl and all, but... you know, she's my baby sister, she's my responsibility."

"Oh," the blonde girl said disappointedly, before perking up slightly, "No, I understand. You're a good big brother, looking out for your sister like that," she said with a kind beam, filling Lincoln with both a sense of guilt and, oddly enough, pride.

Still, he returned the smile. "Thanks, Leni. And, really, I meant what I said. You are a really nice girl. Nicer than some people," he said, glaring at Lynn, who simply stuck her tongue out.

"Aw, thanks Lincoln," she said, before stopping in front of a door, "Well, everyone else is in here. Lynn, you can just go in, I want to say something to these two." Lynn shrugged and gave Lincoln a soft punch on the shoulder, "I'll see you inside, Lame-O," she said as she entered the room, leaving Leni standing before Lincoln and the baby in his arms.

"Well, before we go in, I just want to say... welcome to the apartment. Some of the people inside can be, like... a bit of a handful, but... they are all totes nice and great. Even that twin girl who writes all those mean things on my door. She doesn't mean it," Leni said with a bit of a forgiving laugh, "Point is... we're all totes happy to meet you two, Lily and Lincol... actually, can I ask a favor?"

"What's that?"

"Can I... can I call you Linky? I know it's a bit silly, but... I can sometimes have a problem with some words..." Leni said, with a hint of sadness in her tone, before she quickly followed up with, "It's totes okay if you don't want me to..."

"No," Lincoln said, kindly smiling at the blonde teen, "If it makes it easier for you... you can call me Linky..."

"Thank you, Linky," Leni cheered as smiled fondly at him, causing his face to go a little red and he looked away down to the ground as his ears started burning. Having an attractive girl like Leni look at him like that wasn't the easiest thing for a boy on the cusp of puberty.

 _Oh God, I hope I don't develop a crush on her. I don't want to be like Clyde with that Carol girl._

"Well, let's go inside," he said, grasping the door handle and slowly opening the door...

* * *

 **The worst part about having the two Lynns in the same scene is that I have to use some awkward distinguishers. Never take that 'Sr.' and 'Jr.' for granted, folks.**

 **And yes. Another two parter, to wrap up this final part of the introduction 'arc.' And next time I'll give a little more focus to Leni and a lot more to Lori, while also tying up a few loose ends from this part of the story. I know I've been slowing with updates on this story, so I'll try to make sure this one comes out before the end of the month.**

 **Otherwise, I hope you've enjoyed, and stay tuned for Part Two.**


	8. Chapter 8

One thing Lincoln noted when he entered through the door was that everyone he had gotten to know over the past few days was in there, no absentees. His eyes scanned across the large room, and the first person he saw was Lisa, sitting alone by the side of the wall as she scratched her pen across a small yellow notepad, occasionally glancing up to look at the other occupants of the room.

Besides her were the twins, Lola and Lana, who were engaged in a small tug of war over a… was that some kind of girl scout badge? Lincoln couldn't tell; to him, it was a small blur of cloth that each girl held onto as they pushed and pulled it towards themselves, moving too fast between them for the naked eye to tell.

"Give it to me, it's mine," Lola said, as she yanked it towards herself.

"Nuh uh. I did more work to earn it," Lana argued, snatching it back. Lincoln noted that Lisa would occasionally glare in their direction in annoyance, but would say nothing, simply going back to her notes and scribbling down words.

Next to them, Lynn watched with interest, contradictorily cheering on both sides of the small tug of war. "Come on, Lana, use those tool working arms. Lola, you got the drive to win, don't let it down."

Standing besides Lynn was Luna, trying to break the two twins up. "Come on, dudes, knock it off," Luna said as she tried to reach into their fight, but pulled her arm back quickly as Lana growled and attempted to sink her teeth into it. Judging from the rocker girl's terrified expression, she was not going to be trying again, and all she could do was voice verbal concerns.

Standing off in the far end of the room, behind one of the small sofas, was Luan, holding a small video camera in her hands as she filmed the two twins, plus Luna and Lynn, loudly tussle and argue with each other. "If this doesn't get me on _Funniest Home Videos,_ it'll at least do well online," Luan chuckled slightly to herself.

"Luan, keep it down, I'm on the phone," said the young blonde woman on the couch that Lincoln was sure was Lori. As Luan made the 'zip the mouth and throw away the key' gesture, Lori happily returned to talking on her mobile. "And so I was literally crying when that creepy vampire guy pushed Blake off the… oh, spoiler alert? It's literally been out for about 3 months, so it's not my fault you haven't seen it…"

"AHHHHHHH!" Lola screamed as Lana finally pulled her prize away from her twin, with a victorious yell of "YES! IN YOUR FACE!" She enjoyed her celebration for about three more seconds before Lola snarled like a vicious lioness, and tackled her tomboyish twin, a thick cloud of dust enveloping the two as they began to fight, while Lynn, Lisa and Luna looked on in awe and shock at this brawl in the family.

"Hold on Beatrix, I'll literally call you back," Lori said, gnashing her teeth angrily as she ended the call with her friend. She glared aggressively at the other side of the room, at the two young girls kicking and screaming over some petty issue, and the two older girls loudly reacting to what was happening before them.

"LANA, LOLA, STOP FIGHTING! LUNA, LYNN, SHUT UP RIGHT NOW!" she screeched like a banshee, causing everyone in the room to tense up in their places. Even the dust bowl that was Lola and Lana stopped, revealing Lola pulling her sister's hair while the tomboy had her foot in Lola's stomach. Looks of fear and shock were evident on their faces, and perhaps it was that shock that made Lana accidentally slip out;

"Don't tell us what to do. You're not our mom or our sister or anything."

…

…

…

Lori's nostrils flared. "Lana, I swear, if you actually were my sister, I would…"

"No, Lori. Not in front of the baby," Leni cried out, as everyone in the room turned their heads back to the door, and finally spied the guests of honor. Lincoln simply stood there, mouth wide open in shock at the entire scene, and was only brought out of his stunned state when the baby in his arms started pointing at Lori and giggling. "Ed Ed," she said before she laughed excitedly at her own joke.

"Linky, what did she just say?" Leni asked.

"Well, she usually says that when she sees the color red, and… oh…" he said as he looked back to Lori, noticing that her face boiling red from anger. Of course, she seemed to realize that as well, and suddenly her face turned into a softer shade of red, from embarrassment rather than anger, forcing Lincoln and some of the others to stifle giggles and laughs.

"Well… um… that's literally enough about me. I guess you two are the new kids, right?" Lori asked.

Before Lincoln could answer, Lola immediately spoke up.

"Yes, Lori, the boy that looks like an old man is named Linc…"

"Thank you, Lola, but I think he can introduce himself and his sister."

"Whatever you say, Lori," Lola said, pure admiration in her eyes for the eldest girl. _Lana was right,_ Lincoln thought, _she really does like Lori._

Lola maintained her admiring smile as long as Lori kept her eyes on her, but as they both turned back to the ones standing at the door, Lola met the gaze of Leni. Leni smiled kindly at the six year old, and within a few seconds, Lola's smile quickly turned upside down. _Guess Lana was right about that too._

Well, time to introduce himself to the last person he hadn't met.

"My name is Lincoln," the young boy said as he pointed to himself, "and this is my baby sister Lily," he said as he shifted his finger in the direction of the infant girl in his arms, who immediately grabbed the pointer with her tiny hands and started shaking it.

"Um, I think I could tell without you pointing. Did you think I needed the assist or something?" Lori said as she walked over to the young man. She stared down at him, looking him up and down with a neutral look on her face, almost like she were an older Lisa, studying and looking over an interesting specimen. Lincoln did his best not to shy away from her intense gaze, and kept his eyes on hers.

But when she looked over to Lily, Lincoln noticed an immediate change in her expression. Though she did her best to maintain the same look on her face, the moment she locked on to the adorable baby, any glare in her eyes was replaced by a softer look. The edges of her mouth twitched once… twice…

"D'awwww, she's so cute," Lori burst out in spite of herself, as a kind and warm look overtook her features. She immediately covered her eyes, and gently whispered to Lily "Where's Lori?" and when the baby seemed somewhat confused, Lori revealed herself behind the curtain of her hands "Peek a boo," she said, as the baby squealed with joy, causing the entire room to break out into nine different "D'awwwws."

"D'awwww," came a rather monotone voice from behind Lori, startling her as she jumped into the air from fright. "Lucy, stop sneaking up on us. And where were you this whole time?"

Lucy pointed at the ceiling, and Lori decided then and there that she would rather not know.

"By the way, didn't know you were such a baby person, Lori," Lucy said in a voice that somehow managed to be both drab and teasing.

Lori immediately straightened herself upright, and cleared her throat. "That was… a temporary slip up. I'm still the same fearsome Lori that I ever was…"

She noticed everyone eyeing her with that 'Oh really?' look on her face.

"What? She's a cute baby. Can't I play with a cute baby every once in a while? I… like babies, I guess…" Lori said, her flustered cheeks going a little red.

"Poo poo," Lily said with a satisfied nod, approvingly.

"Well, now that we're all here, we can reveal the secret to our new friend," Lynn said, addressing Lincoln, "You see, Linc… we're actually not what we appear to be. This entire apartment… is just a base for international mafias, and we're all…"

"Knock it off, Lynn. If we wanted to hear bad jokes, we'd ask L-" Lori said, cutting herself off before she slipped the name, though her staring at Luan gave it away. The jokester girl frowned angrily, and crossed her arms.

"Everyone's a critic," she muttered, as Luna patted her comfortingly on the shoulder.

"So… what are we all supposed to do in here?" Lincoln suddenly asked the girls, "I mean, what's the point of us all sitting around in here?"

"Well, the point is that while the adults are getting to know each other, we're supposed to meet and greet you," Lori explained, before frowning slightly, "But I guess you already got to know everyone here by now, so…"

"I think Lana would like to get to know Linky a little better~" Lola said cruelly, giving her sister an evil smile, causing the young tomboy's face to redden faintly. She looked up at Lincoln, before giving a small yelp and turning away. Lola laughed at the misfortune of her twin, but a sharp look from some of the others promptly made her quiet down.

"So, we can move on to Stage Two of these things; just… just do whatever you want. As long as nobody bothers me and you're all quiet while I'm on the phone, you can all literally trash the place as far as I'm concerned…"

"Hey, what about the pizza?" Luna asked, "I recall us getting pizza at the last one of these. Where are our pies, dude?"

"Don't worry, we did order pizza, but unfortunately the delivery guy is an incompetent moron who can't use the Maps app, it's going to take a while," Lori said in frustration. However, her expression suddenly changed, as she almost instantly went from annoyed and frustrated to gooey and romantic, "Of course, the man I've been talking to would never be an incompetent delivery boy. It's one of his many jobs, and he's great at all of them. Delivery boy, lifeguard, clerk, tour guide…"

 _Hmm, that guy sounds a lot like Bobby. He had a million jobs, and I'm pretty sure he had those four,_ Lincoln thought to himself, but before he could verbalize his thoughts on the matter, Luan spoke first.

"How about as a detective?" Luan asked with a small smirk on her face. Lori looked with puzzlement in her eyes. "Detective?"

"Um… how about you think about a synonym for detective. Then you'll get it," Luan said, her cheeks starting to puff from her amusement, as she bit her lip to keep from revealing the punch line. Everyone started thinking about every word that also meant detective…

"Wait, I get it," Lynn said with an amused chuckle, "Good one, Luan."

It appeared Lori got it as well, but before she could say anything too hostile to the brunette comedienne, Leni interjected with "I don't get it; what does cinnamon have to do with detective work?"

"Synonym, Leni, not cinnamon," Lisa corrected.

"You know, Leni, they say eating a lot cinnamon powder as fast as you can is a great way to keep your hair nice and silky," Lola said with her usual evil and toothy smile.

"Don't do that, Leni. She's lying to you," Lincoln said, glaring at Lola, who promptly stuck her tongue out and blew a raspberry at the young boy. Lily giggled at that, and blew a raspberry of her own. And of course, being a baby, Lily ended up dribbling _a lot_ wet spit and saliva down her face, which quickly ran down to her chin and dripped on Lincoln's hand and arm.

"Wow, I didn't think there was that much spit in the world, much less in one baby," Lola noted, and despite her prim and proper personality, she was impressed with the quantity, much to Lincoln's own chagrin.

"Ugh, gross Lily," Lincoln complained, but his annoyance and disgust quickly faded at the sound of Lily's laughter and clapping. He couldn't stay mad at the cheery infant.

"There's a small bathroom across the hall, to clean yourselves up," Lana said, "And don't worry, Lynn hasn't gotten to it yet."

"You know he'd have something to worry about if I did," Lynn said with a perverse pride, high fiving the young plumber girl. Lincoln nodded at her with gratitude, and turned away from the others to exit the room and enter the bathroom.

"Alright, let's find some tissues or paper towels," Lincoln said to himself, setting Lily down on the long sink counter, glancing along the stretch of marble for any sign of a tissue box or roll. He sighed audibly when he saw none. "Maybe some toilet paper next to the toilet," he said, looking over in that direction, and disappointedly sighed again when there was none to be found.

"Jeez, sighbaby. Sighing that much is literally not good for your health," Lincoln heard from behind him. He quickly spun around, and saw Lori standing in the open doorway, holding a box of tissues.

"L-Lori, why did you follow me into the bathroom?" Lincoln stutteringly asked as he felt his face go bright red and his cheeks and ears start to burn painfully. Lori just rolled her eyes.

"I came here to give you these. To clean yourselves off with," Lori said as she handed the awkward young man the box of Kleenex, "I came in here earlier, and I remembered that they were out of tissues, and I would hate for wittle Wiwy to go all dirty," she said in a cutesy voice as she looked at Lily. She noticed Lincoln staring at her with a blank expression, and she quickly returned to her usual form. "If you tell anyone I said 'wittle Wiwy' I will turn you into a human pretzel. Since you may not know that what is yet, it's when I…"

"I can imagine," Lincoln said, taking the small box from her hands, pulling out sheets of tissue and starting to wipe off his sister's face, much to the baby's displeasure, "Still, thanks for bringing me this. Though you should have knocked…"

"Why? You literally left the door open."

"It's a courtesy," Lincoln complained, as Lori rolled her eyes again.

"Listen, twerp, the reason that I came out here wasn't just to hand you a box of wipes. I would've just had Lola do that. That girl would do anything I say, from some reason…"

"Then why…"

"Because I want to talk to you specifically. As the newcomer, I'd like to say a few things to you."

Now Lincoln was confused. From what he had seen so far from the young adult, she seemed… more disinterested in everyone else's affairs, despite the fact that she's been with them all for a long while. Why would she have something to say to him? It was that question that swiftly converted Lincoln's confusion into curiosity, and he simply looked at the girl with eyes full of interest.

Lori took a deep breath, before she started;

"Lincoln, before I start, I want to ask you; do you know who the newcomer was before you?"

Lincoln shook his head, and Lori gave him a crafty smile. "Well, she's standing right in front of you."

"You? You were the newbie before me?"

"Ugh. I hate that word. But yes, I was the 'newbie' before you and your sister showed up. Granted, that was literally months ago, and I've come to fit in pretty well in this place, but…" Lori's tone suddenly softened, and there was almost a hint of what Lincoln could only describe as sisterly affection, despite her not being his sister, "I know what it feels like, is what I'm saying. Let me ask you; has it been overwhelming since you showed up?"

Lincoln nodded.

"Do you really miss the place where you originally came from?"

Lincoln nodded again, a bit more sadly.

"Are you worried that somehow, you're never going to fit in because of the way you are?"

Lincoln nodded, but found himself asking, "Why were you worried that you wouldn't fit in?"

Lori smiled gently. "Lincoln, out of all the teenagers here, I'm the oldest. Being the oldest in age and youngest in experience was a bit contradictory and overwhelming, and honestly, it was a bit awkward. If it weren't for Leni, I… I honestly don't know…"

"Don't you have any friends at school?"

Lori actually snorted. "Senior girls at a high school… make friends with the new kid? Get real…

"But the point is, Lincoln… as much as I worried about my age, everyone accepted me pretty well. Now I'm friends with Leni, sometimes friends with Luna and Luan, and… while I'm not entirely fond of her, I do appreciate some of Lynn's qualities. So, I just want to say… don't worry about a thing, Lincoln. You'll fit in fine. As much as we like to fight and argue and hate on each other, we're almost like a big family, in a sense."

"Yeah, I know. I don't even think it's been a week, and I've already made some friends and gotten to know everyone, and even though there were some... less sparkly moments, I'm still having a good time," Lincoln admitted, before he softly sighed, "But still, despite that... I really miss my old friends, from back home. I know I shouldn't think about it..."

"Lincoln, it's normal to think about your old life. You're still adapting to all this, it's okay to look back fondly. And you know you can just talk to them over the phone, right?" Lori suggested.

"It's not that easy. Me and my best friend Clyde..."

For some reason, Lori felt a creeping chill go down her spine at the mention of that name.

"... we used to talk to each other all the time on our walkie talkies. But, you know, they don't really work over long distances..."

"Well, if only there were a genius who could rewire and fix up your walkie talkie toy so that you could talk with your friend. Too bad we don't have one of those lying around, taking notes and waiting for something to do," Lori said sarcastically.

"Ok, ok, I got it," Lincoln said, before it really struck him what he could now do.

 _I... I can talk to Clyde again. And maybe I can also talk to everyone else. Like Paige and Zach and Liam and both of the Jordans and Ronn..._

Then he remembered what happened between him and Ronnie Anne. He sighed, a bit downtrodden by the memory of how the terms they left off on, and his visible discomfort was evident to both Lori and Lily. Lily, for her part, simply latched onto her older brother's arm, hugging it tightly. He looked down at her, and she looked up at him with wide eyes, and said "Linky?" Lincoln gave her a brotherly smile, causing the baby to relax her grip and beam back.

"You have something troubling you back home?" Lori asked. Lincoln nodded, and reached into his pocket, pulling out the small crumpled photo he often kept with him. He showed it Lori, and pointed his finger right at Ronnie Anne. Lori frowned slightly when she saw the young Hispanic girl.

 _Hmm... haven't I seen that girl before?_

"She's this girl I know from back home," Lincoln said, pulling Lori out of her thoughts and memories, "And I... kinda had troubles with her... towards the end. I guess I just... can't stop thinking about it. I can't stop thinking about her."

"Ah, girl troubles," Lori said, putting on a bit of a perverted smile. One might even say it was a... shipping smile ("Everyone ships Ronniecoln. Why wouldn't they? It's the best ship," the author remarked, completely aware of the irony).

"It... it's not like that..." Lincoln said, now flustered again, "I mean, I sometimes thought of her like that... and we did kiss and it was nice to kiss her and... and..."

"Lincoln, you're rambling," Lori said teasingly, and Lincoln quickly quieted down, "Look, I don't know anything about that girl, or what happened between you and that girl, but, and this is me speaking as a member of the same sex... the word 'sorry' really goes a long way," Lori advised him.

"I would apologize if I could, but I don't I'll ever be able to talk to her again."

"If you ever do... you now know the magic word, thanks to the most wonderful and literally sage person in this whole place; _moi_ " she said, pointing to herself.

"Are you sure you don't like Lynn? You sound a lot like her when you talk about yourself," Lincoln responded. But before she could answer, a shrill noise rang through the entire apartment room, and Lori immediately starting walking out of Lincoln's sight. "About time that jackass showed up," she muttered under her breath, before giving one last look at Lincoln.

"One last thing; I may have been a little nice and soft to you right now, because I know I would've liked a little direction on my first week, but after this, you're just another twerp in my eyes, and you'll speak to me with nothing but reverence and respect. And if you _ever_ compare me to Lynn again..."

"I know, I know. Human pretzel and everything."

"You're already getting it. Good, I like a fast learner," Lori said in a tone that was both cruel and playful, "Now you should probably get back to everyone else. Lily looks pretty cleaned up."

"Poo poo," the baby agreed. Lori smiled sweetly at the infant before finally rushing over to the front door to get the pizza boxes, her footsteps echoing throughout the enclosed space. Lincoln grabbed his sister and placed her comfortably in his arms, and went back to the other room.

"So, you took a while," Lynn said as Lincoln entered the room again.

"Yeah, Lori wanted to talk to me a little about some stuff..."

"Oh, Lincoln, you don't have to hide what really happened. I can take a guess."

"What do you think happened?"

"I think... that you took Lily to the bathroom, but before you went in, Lori pushed you aside and went herself, and I know she could take a while. Man, if I had her farts... my Dutch Ovens would be legendary..." Lynn said dreamily, ending with a bit of a nasty laugh, but she quickly stopped when she noticed Lincoln seemed a bit dazed, "Hey, Linc, you alright?"

Lincoln took a moment before he answered. He thought carefully about everything; Ronnie Anne, Royal Woods, the apartment in the city... and then he looked around the room, at everyone else in the room with him. Lily in his arms, Lisa with her notes, Lola looking at a mirror, Lana observing the broken hatch of the window, Lucy sighing on the couch, Lynn impatiently waiting for him to answer her, Luan cracking jokes, Luna groaning and rolling her eyes at the jokes, Leni walking into a wall by accident, and Lori barging in and shouting "Pizza's here!"

For a moment, the boy felt that this, that the eleven of them gathered together, was... somehow what it was always meant to be. That even though he had only known them for about a week ( _It's been a long week. Felt more like 51 days,_ he thought to himself) he still felt that he had always known them, and was connected to them in ways he could never fully understand...

Of course, Lincoln shrugged the weird feeling off, and looked back to the sporty girl.

"Yeah, Lynn," he said, "I'm alright."

Lynn smiled softly at him, and gave him an affectionate punch on his arm, this one a lot weaker and softer than her usual ones. "I bet I can eat more pizza slices than you," she said competitively.

Lincoln grinned. "You're on."

* * *

 **I find Lori and Lincoln to have an interesting relationship in the show, due to the fact that they are both 'order keepers' and share a lot of the same traits. So I'm a little more interested in delving into their dynamic in the future.**

 **And that finally brings us to the end of the intros. Full disclosure, I kinda had to rush this chapter because a trip me and my family were going on got bumped up a few days, so I'm sorry if I made a few mistakes or some things didn't make sense. Of course, feel free to point them out if you notice them. Constructive criticism is always welcome.**

 **But now that we're done with the intro, the story can finally go in any direction I feel like. The possibilities, the storylines, the...**

…

…

 **I have no idea what I'm doing.**

 **Anyways, thanks for reading.**


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